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BOOKS OF THE 
BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB 



Just Published 

Hunting at High Altitudes 

Price, $2.50 net, postage additional 

Previously Published 
American Big-Game Hunting 
Hunting in Many Lands 
Trail and Camp-Fire 
American Big Game in its Haunts 
Uniform edition. The price of these 
four books is |;2.50 each, and they will 
be sent postpaid. 

HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers 
New York and London 




COL. WM. D. PICKETT. 



Hunting 

At High Altitudes 

Cbe Book of tbe Bootte mi £;rocKen 0ul) 



GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL 

EDITOR 




HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK & LONDON 

MCMXIII 






Copyright, 1913, by 
Madison Grant and George Bird Grinnell 



©aA357227 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Preface 7 

Col. Wm. D. Pickett 1 1 

Memories of a Bear Hunter — 

1876 IS 

1877 46 

1878 80 

1879 106 

1880 157 

1881 186 

1882 207 

1883 229 

By Colonel Wm. D. Pickett. 

Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter . . 242 

By George Bird Grinnell. 

In the Old Rockies 295 

By Daniel M. Barringer. 

Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 314 
By Geo. L. Harrison, Jr. 
3 



Contents 

Page 

A Shooting Trip in Northwestern Rhodesia 344 

By Geo. L. Harrison, Jr. 

The Condition of Wild Life in Alaska . -367 
By Madison Grant. 

Deer Hunting in Cuba 393 

By General Roger D. Williams. 

Elephant Seals of Guadalupe Island . . . 406 
By Dr. Charles H. Townsend. 

The Game Preservation Committee . . .421 

Brief History of the Boone and Crockett Club 433 
By the Editor. 

Officers of the Boone and Crockett Club . . 492 

Committees of the Boone and Crockett Club 493 

Report of Nominating Committee . . . 494 

Report of the Treasurer 499 

Constitution Boone and Crockett Club . .500 

Rules of the Executive Committee . . . 504 

List of Members Boone and Crockett Club . 505 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
Col. Wm. D. Pickett Frontispiece' 

Facing page 

Fort Benton in 1 88 1 38' 

Bull Train at Fort Benton 138 

Mule Train at Fort Benton 138 

Kirghiz Falconers 202'' 

"Battlefield" of September 13, 1883 . . .238"^ 

Khudai Khildi 250* 

Ivan with Roebuck Heads 266*^ 

Crossing a Snow Field . . 282- 

Returning from a Day with Ibex . . . .298' 

Thian Shan Wapiti 31 4' 

Crossing a Pass 330 

Pack Bull — Tekkes River 346 

5 



List of Illustrations 

Facing Page 

Peninsula Bear, Captured at Moeller Bay, 

Alaska 366' 

Adult Male and Female Elephant Seal, 

Guadalupe Island 394"^ 

Adult Male Elephant Seal, Guadalupe Island 394* 

South End of Elephant Seal Rookery, Guada- 
lupe Island 406 

Elephant Seals Nearly Two Years Old in 



the New York Aquarium . . . .418 



/ 



PREFACE 

This is the fifth volume of the books of the 
Boone and Crockett Club, the last one having been 
published in 1904. 

The Ciub is fortunate in having for the volume 
the chapters which treat of the hunting adventures 
of Colonel Wm. D. Pickett, from 1876 to 1883. 
For many years Colonel Pickett was one of the 
vice-presidents of the Club, representing Wyoming, 
and has had an experience in hunting the grizzly 
bear greater probably than that of any man who 
ever lived. A keen sportsman, a lover of outdoor 
life, and a Southern gentleman, Colonel Pickett 
represents the ideals of the Boone and Crockett 
Club. He hunted in the Rocky Mountains at a 
time when people there were few and game was 
abundant. The day of the trapper had passed, 
and that of the skin hunter was just beginning. 

As indicated by its title, this volume deals 
chiefly with hunting in the high mountains. Yet 
this hunting does not all lie close to timber line. 

7 



Preface 

Mr, Harrison's narrative dealing with the great 
game of Rhodesia, and that of General Roger D. 
Williams, about the introduced deer in Cuba, bring 
up forms of sport to most of us unknown. 

It has been thought well to reprint here the 
"Brief History of the Boone and Crockett Club," 
prepared some time ago, and issued separately. 

Madison Grant's article on the wild life of 
Alaska, written some years ago, has been brought 
down to date. 

The Club has consistently striven — and with 
some success — to secure the establishment of game 
refuges In the different forest reserves. There is 
great promise In the State of Arizona, where, 
through the efforts of Charles Sheldon and E. W. 
Nelson, much popular Interest in this subject has 
been awakened. 

A matter in which the Club may feel a just pride 
is the share it had in assisting in the passage of the 
bill to place migratory birds under the charge of 
the Federal Government — a measure which orig- 
inated with one of Its own members, Hon. George 
Shiras, 3d, and which became law In March, 19 13. 

George Bird Grinnell. 

New York, July, 1913. 



Hunting 
At High Altitudes 



^ 



COL. WM. D. PICKETT 

Colonel Wm. D. Pickett was born in northern 
Alabama, October 2, i82y. His parents, George 
B. and Courtney {Heron) Pickett, were natives of 
Virginia, and he was the youngest child. When 
JVm. Pickett was ten years old, the family moved 
to Kentucky, where he was reared and educated. 

While engaged as chainman in a party of land 
surveyors on the northwestern frontier of Texas, 
near the site of the present city of McKinney, in 
January, 1847, the call was sounded for volun- 
teers for the Mexican War, and he at once enlisted 
in Captain Fitzhugh's Company of Bell's Regi- 
ment of Texas Mounted Volunteers for twelve 
months, from February 2, 184'/. Their services 
not being needed for Mexico, this company was 
assigned to the protection against the incursions of 
the Comanche and other hostile tribes, then very 
active, of about one hundred miles of the north- 
western frontier of Texas. This frontier began at 



Col. fVm. D. Pickett 

Preston on Red River and ended at a point on the 
south fork of the Trinity — near the present site of 
Fort Worth. 

After young Pickett's discharge from the service 
he returned to Lexington, Ky., and entered the 
profession of civil engineering. Serving under 
such distinguished engineers as Sylvester fVelch 
and Julius W. Adams, he assisted in the sui-vey 
and construction of the several systems of rail- 
roads of central Kentucky until the spring of 1855, 
ivhen he was transferred to the Memphis &' Ohio 
R. R., of Tennessee, as principal assistant engineer 
to Julius W . Adams, Chief Engineer. After about 
one year* s service in the survey and location of the 
upper end of that road, Mr. Adams resigned, and 
W . D. Pickett succeeded him as Chief Engineer, 
and as such he finished its construction to Paris, 
Tennessee, in the fall of 18 ^g. 

He remained in the service of the Company 
until the latter part of i860, and until the clouds of 
impending war cast their shadows over the land. 

In the conflict which followed, he cast his for- 
tunes with his home State, Tennessee, and except 
for about six months' service in the State Army, 
he served continuously in the Confederate Army 
from about April i, 1861, to April 26, 1865, 
when he was paroled with the army of General 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Joseph E. Johnston, as Colonel, and Assistant In- 
spector-General of W . I. Hardee's Corps. 

During 1861 he was engaged as an engineer in 
the location and construction of water batteries 
between Memphis and Columbus, Kentucky. On 
January ^, 1862, he was transferred to the staf of 
Major General Hardee, with zvhom he served 
until the end came. About this time, certain Con- 
federate detached forces were formed, as the Con- 
federate "Army of Tennessee," consisting of two 
to three corps of two to four divisions each, ac- 
cording to circumstances. General W . I. Hardee 
commanded one of these corps, which won dis- 
tinguished prominence in all the battles that fol- 
lowed: Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Mission- 
ary Ridge — all the battles of the famous "Dalton 
to Atlanta" campaign, including the battles of 
"July 20th" and "July 22d" around Atlanta, and 
the two days' fight at Jonesboro, Ga., ending in 
the evacuation of Atlanta on September 2, 186^. 

In all the battle reports in which this corps were 
engaged, W . D. Pickett has honorable mention 
from his chief. 

In 186'j he was compelled to return to his pro- 
fession as civil engineer, and was engaged, by the 
owners of the franchise of the Memphis 6f Ohio 
R. R., in its reconstruction and rehabilitation after 

13 



Col. Wm. D. Pickett 

the ravages of war, until the latter part of i8ys, 
when he resigned to take a needed rest. 

After some years of recreation the voice from 
the Western wilds so persistently called that about 
July 21, 1 8^6, he found himself on a steamer, at 
Bismarck, Dakota, bound for the headwaters of the 
great Missouri. He spent some years traveling 
and hunting in a country then almost unknown, and 
it is the adventures of those years, beginning with 
iSyd and closing with i88^, that are described in 
the following chapters. In i88^ Colonel Pickett, 
as will be shown in his story, took up land on the 
Grey Bull River, and for a long time held a ranch 
there devoted to raising of thoroughbred Hereford 
cattle. 

Colonel Pickett twice represented Fremont 
County, Wyo., in the State Legislature, and was 
State Senator from Big Horn County, in the 
organization of which he was prominent. He has 
always been a devoted Democrat in politics. Since 
the year i8^^ he has been a member of the Ameri- 
can Society of Civil Engineers, a member of the 
American Association of Political and Social 
Science and of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science. He has lived a long, 
honorable and useful life. 



14 



MEMORIES OF A BEAR HUNTER 

On Friday, July 14, 1876, I left Minneapolis, 
for Bismarck, Dakota, and the country of the 
Upper Missouri, and the next evening reached 
Fargo, the crossing of the Red River of the North. 
Here I met the Episcopal Bishop of Saskatchewan, 
on the way to his bishopric In the Northwest Ter- 
ritories. His residence, 600 miles west of Fort 
Garry, or Winnipeg, covered a very large district. 
The winter before he had traveled two thousand 
miles by dog-train, his team consisting of three or 
four dogs, which covered about forty miles a day. 
He camped where night found him, sleeping on 
the snow. His food three times a day was pem- 
mlcan, tea and frying-pan bread. 

On Tuesday morning I left for Bismarck, about 
two hundred miles distant, reaching there that 
night. The plain over which we passed was gen- 
erally level, and the country looked bald, gloomy 
and grand, without a tree, except on the streams. 
In this loneliness and monotony It reminded me of 
the grand prairie west of the Cross Timbers of 

IS 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

northwestern Texas. During the day no settle- 
ments nor habitations were seen, except an occa- 
sional section house for the railroad hands. 

Bismarck, however, was full of people, brought 
there by the gold excitement in the Blackhills, At 
that time there were about five hundred people in 
the village, which was on the bluff, about a mile 
and a half from the Missouri and four miles from 
Fort Abraham Lincoln^ on the opposite side. 

It was less than a month before this that the 
Seventh Cavalry, U. S. A., under command of 
Lieut.-Col. Geo. A. Custer, had been badly de- 
feated on the Little Big Horn River, Montana, 
seven of its companies surrounded by Sioux and 
Cheyennes, and most of the men killed.^ A 
division of the regiment under Major Reno took 
refuge on a hill-top, was joined by Captain Ben- 
teen and by the pack-train with ammunition under 
Captain MacDougal. A little later General Terry 
came up with a large force of men, the Indians 
retired, and separating into smaller bands, dis- 
appeared. It was supposed they were arranging 
to cross the line into Canada. This report caused 
steamboat travel on the river to be regarded as 
somewhat hazardous. However, on the evening 

^The numbers which follow in the text, refer to the 
Chapter of Notes by the Editor. 

i6 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

of July 2 1,1 boarded the steamer Western for the 
Upper Missouri River, sleeping on board, for, as 
the steamboats did not commonly run at night, the 
Western was not to start until early next morning.^ 
The mosquitoes here were very numerous, vora- 
cious and troublesome. However, during the latter 
part of the night, the weather turned cool, and this, 
with the motion of the boat, which started at 
seven, gave some relief. 

The immediate bottom of the Missouri here does 
not differ greatly from that of the Lower Missouri, 
or the Mississippi below Cairo. Just back of the 
timbered bluffs, however, the ground rises in high 
hills, often abrupt and precipitous. Late in the 
afternoon we saw two antelope, and at midnight 
came to the site of Old Fort Clark, and there tied 
up for the night. At 2 o'clock the next day we 
reached Fort Stevenson,* a two-company military 
post in the bottom between the highlands and the 
river. In the evening we reached Fort Berthold,^ 
said to have been established by a Frenchman of 
that name, where lived the Arikara^ Indians, who 
at this time were occupying lodges made of canvas. 
Near the fort was their burial ground, where the 
bodies were placed on scaffolds supported by poles, 
and from every grave fluttered something which 
looked like flags, but which really were offerings 

17 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

of calico. These Indians are said to be most 
friendly to the whites, having long been at peace 
with them. 

During the night of July 24 the steamboat lay 
all night at a woodyard above Berthold. An early 
start was made next morning, and about 9 o'clock 
a war party of twenty Indians appeared on the 
south bank of the river. When they appeared on 
the hills in the distance, most of us thought they 
were buffalo, but my field glasses soon coirrected 
this Impression. A few of them appeared on the 
cliffs above the boat and shouted salutations to us, 
waving a flag, but the most of them kept back out 
of sight. As they moved toward the river, and 
when they appeared riding along the bluff, 300 feet 
above the steamboat, It was supposed they Intended 
to fire into the boat, and there was a scampering 
of the passengers from the decks. They were elab- 
orately painted and were evidently a war party. 

A rumor was current at Berthold that General 
Terry had had a battle with the Sioux on the Yel- 
lowstone River, and had beaten them. 

During the morning we passed the mouth of the 
Little Missouri River. Since leaving Bismarck, 
the weather had been pleasant. There had been 
some cloudy weather, but no rain. The hills 
among which we were constantly traveling were 

iS 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

often completely bare of vegetation. At a wood- 
yd.rd where we stopped, we found half a dozen 
Gros Ventres Indians,''^ who reported a camp of 
Standing Rock Sioux Indians on a hunt only a few 
miles away. Many of these Indians were armed 
with Springfield needle guns and Spencer rifles. 
From time to time they received runners from Sit- 
ting Bull, and the report was that Terry was mov- 
ing against the Sioux and pressing them. 

Here for the first time I saw one of the Indian 
bullboats.^ It was nothing more than a buffalo 
hide stretched by willow twigs about an inch in 
diameter into the shape of a large, but quite deep, 
bowl. At the top it was about four feet across. 

Early on the morning of July 25, a few buffalo 
were reported in the hills. They were seen by a 
number of people, for here the mosquitoes were as 
bad as at Bismarck, and all the passengers sat up 
and fought mosquitoes all night. During the morn- 
ing we passed a band of eighteen lodges of Sioux 
Indians, who were crossing to the north side of the 
river. They declared that they were very hungry 
and seemed anxious to stop the boat. Some of the 
passengers thought them hostile, but they made no 
offensive demonstration. The men seemed large 
and athletic, and were clad In blankets and breech 
clouts: 

10 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

The woodyard^ passed to-day was on the de- 
fensive, for here an Indian had recently been killed 
by one of the choppers. A party of Indians were 
seen in the act of creeping up to another wood- 
chopper, and just as one of them was about to 
shoot at him, one of his fellows shot the Indian. 
The others scampered off, and since then have 
more than once attempted to kill the keeper of the 
woodyard. 

About 6 o'clock we reached Fort Buford,^*^ 
where we discharged much freight and live stock 
for the Yellowstone Expedition under Gen. Terry. 
Buford was an eight company post, pleasantly sit- 
uated on the north bank of the river in an extensive 
plain, with a range of hills a mile to the rear. The 
garrison consisted of about a hundred men. 

For a hundred miles above Buford the country 
bordering the river is not so broken, and sometimes 
broad valleys with a few cottonwood trees and 
covered with fine grass, come down toward the 
river. In some places it almost resembles a Ken- 
tucky bluegrass woodland. 

We reached Wolf Point at 7 o'clock that night, 
and found here a large band of Sioux Indians. 
These were of the northernmost group of the 
Sioux, known as the Assiniboine.^^ They had just 
returned from a buffalo hunt sixty miles to the 

20 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

southwest, where they killed 370 buffalo. Deer 
and elk were reported plenty. 

My room mate was Major Mitchell/^ of 
Quincy, 111. He was the Indian agent for all the 
Crow, Blackfoot, Gros Ventres and Sioux Indians 
living between the Missouri River and the British 
line, and from Fort Union west tO' the Marias 
River. He was a pleasant fellow and seemed to 
like me, and when he invited me to stop with him 
at Fort Peck and make a hunt for buffalo' I deter- 
mined to accept. It was to this agency that Sitting 
Bull and a part of the Sioux belonged, who were 
now fighting the troops on the Little Big Horn 
River. 

When we reached Fort Peck In the evening, I 
found a stockade of two or three acres In extent. 
It was made of cottonwood trees twelve feet long 
and ten inches in diameter, set on end, which would 
make a very good defense against rifles, but im- 
mediately in the rear of the fort was a range of 
hills two hundred feet high, and this commanded 
the post. Within the stockade stood comfortable 
log huts, with sod roofs, yet there were only ten 
or twelve men to man the fort, and any reasonably 
large force could capture it in a short time. 

For a day or two now It had been very hot, a dry 
parching wind blowing from the south. I had been 

21 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

troubled by illness since leaving Fargo and this 
grew worse daily, so that I was feeling quite badly 
and was in no condition to move about much. 

The garrison of the little fort was much alarmed 
about hostile Indians reported in the neighbor- 
hood, and indeed the smoke of a camp was visible 
in the southwest, a few miles distant. The day 
before a Hunkpapa Sioux reported from the hostile 
camp on Tongue River, riding a gray horse 
branded "C Company, 7th Cavalry." He told 
Major Mitchell that he had reached the hostile 
camp after the fight was over, and that he had 
traded for the horse, but to others he said that 
he was in the fight, and this no doubt was true. On 
being offered some flour he refused to take it unless 
sugar also was given him. He asked for clothing, 
and this also was given him, for Major Mitchell 
wished to conciliate the Indians, as perhaps there 
might be hostiles in the neighborhood. 

Early in August I was still quite ill. A general 
feeling of uneasiness pervaded the fort and there 
were occasional reports that hostile bands were 
approaching to attack it. On the second of the 
rnonth, twelve more Hunkpapa arrived from the 
hostile camp, and two of them were riding horses 
branded "E Company, 7th Cavalry." One had a 
Colt's revolver and a part of a surgeon's case 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

of instruments. They had three more cavalry 
horses in their bunch. Later the same day another 
band appeared on the other side of the river, but 
suddenly decamped, because they believed that the 
whites were about to fire on them. 

All these Indians talked as if they did not wish 
for war, and Medicine Cloud professed to have 
been sent by Sitting Bull to ask for peace. They 
said that they would not fight the soldiers unless 
attacked, but if attacked, would defend them- 
selves. All wished to buy ammunition. 

The Indians who were coming in reported other 
Indians on the way from Sitting Bull, and no' one 
knew what this scattering meant. Some believed 
the Indians were trying to purchase ammunition to 
take back to the hostile camp on Tongue River, 
while others thought that Sitting Bull's force was 
deserting him on account of the number of troops 
being concentrated against him. 

Believing that there was reason for alarm, I 
advised that a new block house, already begun in 
front of the stockade, be finished at once and 
stocked with ammunition and provisions, and that 
if seriously threatened we should all retire into the 
block house and bum everything in the stockade. 
Major Mitchell declared that he would do this at 
once. 

23 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

During all this time there was a camp of four or 
live hundred Indians only a short distance from the 
agency. It was occupied by old men, women and 
children, the families of the actively hostile young 
men who were with Sitting Bull fighting the 
soldiers, while these non-combatants were being fed 
and cared for by the Government. The warriors 
recently returned from the hostile camp, thirty to 
fifty in number, and bringing with them the spoils 
of the fight in the shape of cavalry horses, arms 
and other plunder, were going directly to this 
camp. 

One day word was brought to the agency that a 
war dance would be held at the camp that night. 
The affair was genuine, the participants having just 
returned from the slaughter of a part of Custer's 
regiment. During the previous winter I had at- 
tended a war dance by a band of Chippewa In- 
dians, at Vermillion Bay, Minnesota, and I was 
curious to see the difference between this dance as 
performed by tame Indians and by these thor- 
oughly savage people of the plains. Believing that 
"one might as well be killed for a sheep as a lamb," 
I set out with one or two employees of the post, 
and was on hand soon after the performancf^ 
began. 

The tipi used in the dance was the usual living 
24 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

tent. The spectators were women and children, 
and were gathered in groups close around the sides, 
leaving the center open for the dance. The dancers 
appeared clad only in their breech clouts. Their 
bodies and faces were horribly painted, mostly in 
black.i^ The three musicians squatted at the side 
of the tent, each holding in the left hand a drum 
with only one head, on which each beat with a 
stick. As we approached the tipi, we plainly heard 
the shouts and whoops of the dancers, and when 
we entered found ten or twelve warriors dancing 
in the middle of the tipi. As they moved about, 
each jumped up twice on one foot, landing on the 
heel, and then repeated the jump with the other 
foot, keeping time as they danced tO' the music of 
the drummers. These, as they beat the drums, 
chanted a mournful song, which in some cases was 
taken up by the warriors. Frequently these last 
appeared to be in a high state of excitement and 
uttered blood-curdling yells and whoops. The 
women and children lying about close under the 
lodge coverings did not seem particularly Interested 
in what was going on, nor did they enter into the 
excitement. After remaining about one hour we 
withdrew. 

The principal object of my stay at Fort Peck 
was to take advantage of the opportunity to make 

25 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

a hunt with the French half-breeds/* who, as 
Major Mitchell was Informed, would soon reach 
Fort Peck to deliver a quantity of pemmican, 
which they had contracted to supply to the agency. 
These people were the descendants of the Indians 
and the original French population of western 
Canada. They were civilized, Christianized and 
Catholics, and certain bands of them came across 
the border each season and followed the herds of 
buffalo which roamed over the plains between the 
Missouri River and the Canada line. In winter 
these vast herds tended to drift southward before 
the northerly winter winds, as far as the valley 
of the Yellowstone. The French half-breeds 
earned their living by following these buffalo, kill- 
ing them as they needed them, saving and dressing 
the skins, and making pemmican. ^^ 

Pemmican consists of meat that has been thor- 
oughly dried, beaten and ground between stones 
until it is very flimsy and loose. It Is then packed 
Into a mold of green buffalo hide from which the 
hair has been removed. The interstices are then 
thoroughly filled by pouring in hot melted tallow. 
The dried meat must not be packed so tight as to 
prevent the melted tallow from thoroughly mixing 
with the lean dried meat. The package is then 
sewed up, and when thoroughly cold Is easily 

26 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

handled. It weighs about a hundred pounds to the 
package. Sometimes choke cherries or buffalo ber- 
ries are mixed with the tallow. Pemmican is very 
palatable and nourishing, and is largely used in 
winter travel in the British Northwest. 

These French half-breeds were well armed, 
good hunters, and made their living from the buf- 
falo. The robes they sold at three or four dollars 
each. Pemmican they sold to the Indian agencies, 
always reserving enough for their own winter use. 
Their means of transportation was unique, and 
suited to the open prairies over which they roam. 
It consisted of twO'-wheeled carts with wooden 
axles and without any iron or steel in their con- 
struction. The entire vehicle was bound together 
with buffalo rawhide. These carts were usually 
drawn by one or two hardy Indian ponies. If two, 
they were driven tandem. If a cart broke down It 
was easily repaired by means of the strings and 
lines and rawhide which all possessed. The axles 
were ungreased, and when the half-breeds were 
moving, the cries of the wheels could be heard a 
mile off. Their wives and children traveled with 
them, and they lived In lodges like the Indians. 

These half-breeds were seldom molested by any 
of the prairie tribes, and were on good terms with 
all of them, though occasionally young men on 

27 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

the warpath approached the camps and tried to 
run off horses. In case of danger, the half-breeds 
brought their carts together in a circle, placed the 
ponies within it, tipped up the bodies of their carts, 
and behind this fortification were absolutely safe 
from the charge of any enemy that might attack 
them. 

Soon after my arrival at Fort Peck the band of 
half-breeds came in, their carts groaning under 
their loads of pemmican. The leader was a wide- 
awake, fairly educated and intelligent man. I 
could have gone out with them, except for my ill- 
ness, which would have made the trip suicide. 

I shall never forget the kindness that I received 
from the officers of the agency during this illness. 
The surgeon. Dr. Southworth,^® was especially 
kind, and I saw a great deal of him. He was much 
interested in collecting freaks of nature, and among 
his trophies were pieces of three separate white 
buffalo robes. These he valued very highly. Dr. 
Southworth told me of a white beaver skin owned 
by a person in Fort Benton, Montana, whither I 
was going, and said that he believed it the only 
white beaver ever heard of this side (north) of the 
Union Pacific Railroad. I determined that I would 
try to obtain it for the Doctor, and when in Fort 
Benton the following November, I hunted it up. 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

I found It in possession of a Mr. Evans, who told 
me that It was trapped on what was afterward 
called White Beaver^'^ Creek, a tributary of the 
Yellowstone River, below the mouth of the Big 
Horn. Believing this to be the only white beaver 
ever trapped In the Northwestern Territories, I 
gave $25 for the skin and sent It to Dr. South- 
worth, who was much gratified to receive it. 

On the prairie back of Fort Peck was a great 
burial ground of Indians that had died at the 
agency. It could be seen for a long way down the 
river, and used to attract much curiosity. The 
graves Were not dug in the ground, but each body 
wrapped In its robe or blanket, was placed upon a 
platform about twelve feet high. 

The scaffold^ ^ rested on four poles, to which it 
was bound by thongs of rawhide. While the 
people were journeying here and there over the 
prairie the bodies of the dead were deposited in 
trees, where they were firmly tied, and at a date 
later than this I observed that all the trees on the 
river near Cow Island held one or more dead 
bodies. After having been thus put in the trees 
and on scaffolds, no further attention was paid 
to the dead. 

It was not diflicult to surmise the origin of this 
custom; if buried, bodies were quite sure to be dug 

29 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

up by wolves and other predatory animals. Be- 
sides this, the Indians, until the advent of the 
white man, possessed no tools of steel or iron. Pick 
and shovel, the only tools with which a grave might 
be dug, were unknown among these nomadic tribes 
at that time. 

My stay at Fort Peck lasted for about a month 
— from July 29 to August 27, on which day I left 
by the steamer Key West to go further up the 
river. This was the first vessel that had passed up 
stream since I reached here. During the whole 
time of my stay I had been ill and had been treated 
with the utmost kindness by Major Mitchell and 
Dr. Southworth, whose conduct emphasized again 
the lesson learned long ago, that this world is full 
of good, kind, high-minded people, no matter what 
their condition and surroundings in life. 

Cow Island Crossing, where we landed four 
days after leaving Fort Peck, was the only route 
by which "bull teams" could reach the river. The 
post was located near the mouth of Cow Island 
Creek, which comes in from the north, and was the 
head of low water navigation. By the large freight 
outfits which came down to the river at this point, 
was distributed a vast amount of freight over all 
Montana. The route, after leaving the valley of 
the river, skirts the foot of the Bear Paw Moun- 

30 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

tains on the south and goes on to Fort Benton, 
about a hundred and fifty miles from Cow Island. 
For protection toi the freight discharged here, a 
company of the Seventh U. S. Infantry was sta- 
tioned at this point. The freight was under charg'e 
of Col. Geo. Clendenin,^^ an old-timer in the 
country and a very intelligent, reliable and good 
business man. He was from Washington, D. C. 
Among the large and well organized freighting 
outfits of that day, I recall one, the Diamond-R, 
and another owned by Murphy, Neill & Co. Each 
outfit consisted of seven teams, and each team of 
seven yoke of oxen, each team of oxen pulling three 
wagons linked together. At this time the leading 
wagon was commonly loaded with about 3,500 
pounds of freight, while the intermediate and trail 
wagons carried smaller loads. To each outfit there 
was a foreman, a driver for each team and a night 
herder; all were well armed with repeating rifles. 
Usually they made camp early in the day and then 
turned loose their bulls to graze under the control 
of a night herder until the next morning. The 
average day's journey was from ten to fifteen miles. 
These freight outfits could follow almost any route 
over the plains country. If they met with steep 
ravines or boggy places they had the labor and 
tools to repair the road. In case of a steep, hard 

31 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

pull, the trail wagons were dropped, and each 
wagon pulled up separately and then assembled at 
the top of the hill. If danger from hostile Indians 
threatened, the wagons were brought together to 
form a fortification, and the nine or ten expert 
shots within the circle of the wagons usually gave 
a good account of themselves. It was through men 
able so to adapt themselves to surrounding con- 
ditions that the magnificent Empire of the North- 
west was wrested from the control of the savage. 
At that date Bismarck was the nearest railroad 
point on the east, while on the south it was Ogden 
or perhaps Corinne. The great waterway of the 
Missouri River furnished Montana and a great 
portion of the British Northwest with most of the 
necessaries of life, as clothing, sugar, coffee and 
canned provisions. The only articles of export 
were gold from the placer mines in the mountains 
— which usually went out by Ogden — and the 
skins of various furred animals, such as beaver, 
fox and wolf, together with the hides of the ante- 
lope, deer, elk and buffalo. 

At Cow Island I spent a very enjoyable month 
from August 31 to September 28. Black-tailed — 
mule — deer were fairly abundant, but there were 
no elk or bear. I made frequent excursions intO' the 
adjacent hills and killed some 4eer, which were 

32 



Memories of a Bear Huntef 

always acceptable at the post. As the weather was 
dry and the temperature agreeable the time passed 
very quickly. 

During the autumn the gold excitement in the 
Black Hills brought down from up the river a num- 
ber of miners on the way to the Hills. From one 
of these I purchased a black, bald-faced horse, 
Charlie, with saddle and bridle, while from an- 
other I secured a pack mule with a complete outfit 
for packing. I was now Independent, and could 
go anywhere. 

During my stay at Cow Island, two' boats came 
up the river, the Durfee and the Benton. On one 
of these was Lieut. Schofield, of the Second Cav- 
alry, with a number of recruits. 

It was unsafe to make the trip to Benton alone, 
and for some time I had been awaiting some com- 
pany, and this was my chance. Lieut. Schofield 
needed a pack animal, which I had, and which car- 
ried a part of our things. A good man was em- 
ployed as packer and cook, and on the 28th of 
September we pulled out from Cow Island. On 
the second evening we camped at the foot of the 
Bear Paw Mountains. I had gone ahead and 
killed a buffalo, which furnished food for the fifty 
souls of the outfit until Fort Benton was reached 
on the 3d of October. 

33 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Fort Benton was then a place of about eight 
hundred people, and contained three trading stores 
— I. G. Baker & Co., T. C. Power & Co., and 
Murphy, Neill & Co. Here I met W. G. Conrad, 
manager of I. G. Baker & Co., and his brother 
Charles, who were from Virginia, and had served 
as Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. I 
met also Colonel Donelly, who had served in the 
Federal Army, and who later was conspicuous in 
the Fenian troubles on the Canadian border. For 
ten days I hunted with Colonel Donelly In the foot- 
hills of the Highwood Mountains, and later made 
an arrangement with two sons of Mr. Hackshaw, 
living on Highwood Creek, to make a hunt lasting 
for a month. Their object was to get a supply of 
winter's meat for Mr. Hackshaw, while I was 
anxious for sport. 

We left the Hackshaw ranch October 20 for 
the Judith Basin, about fifty miles to the south, 
where buffalo were reported abundant. My hunt- 
ing companions were Cornelius, twenty-one years 
of age, and John, sixteen, both wide-awake boys 
and good shots. I took with me my riding horse 
and pack mule, and my rifle was a long-range 
Sharp, carrying a 90-450 or a 90-520 shell. Our 
route lay by the ranch of Oscar Olinger on Belt 
Creek, and we consulted with him and his partner, 

34 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

Buck Barker, as to the best hunting grounds. They 
had just returned from a buffalo hunt in the Judith 
Basin, and told us that a party of Nez Perces 
Indians of ninety warriors had just passed through 
the Judith Gap after buffalo. They advised us toi 
go up on the west slope of the Highwood Moun- 
tains for elk and buffalo^. We took their advice, 
and on the 29th day of October moved up one of 
the branches of Belt Creek, a day's journey, and 
made permanent camp. 

It was on a beautiful mountain stream full of 
trout, and we caught enough for one or two meals 
that evening. The next day, riding up tO' the 
base of the mountains, about a mile distant, we saw 
during the day twenty-five deer. I killed a black- 
tail buck, and Cornelius a whitetail buck. About 
one o'clock, just as I had killed my deer, a fierce 
snowstorm set in. When I reached camp with the 
deer I found everything comfortable. The storm 
ceased before dark, and during the night the sky 
cleared. 

The next day it again began to snow and stormed 
hard all day from the northwest, but on the first 
of November the storm ceased, leaving fifteen 
inches of snow on the ground. The following day 
It was cold, only a little above zero, but I hunted 
and killed nothing. The snow was now getting 

35 



'Hunting at High Altitudes 

so deep that the horses could not dig through it 
and secure food enough to keep them in good con- 
dition, so we determined that they should be sent 
back to the ranch, to be brought out here again as 
soon as the snow melted enough to enable us to get 
the wagon out. Accordingly, on the 5th of No- 
vember, John started for the ranch, packing two 
deer on one horse and riding the other. He be- 
lieved that twelve or fifteen miles would take him 
home, but I feared that he might have trouble with 
snowdrifts. Cornelius and I remained in camp 
with little to do, for the snow was two feet deep, 
and it was difficult to move about in it. However, 
we had plenty of provisions, abundant venison and 
a brook full of trout, almost in front of the tent 
door. 

On the 6th of November Cornelius and I deter- 
mined to make a hunt. We did so, and killed two 
deer; but returned at night almost broken down 
with fatigue, for the labor of walking through two 
feet of snow was extraordinary. The next few 
days we spent in camp, loading cartridges, fishing 
and performing various camp tasks. The weather 
was mild and the snow thawed so rapidly that we 
determined to hunt the following day. It was 
still warm, and I set out and followed three white- 
tails up into the Dines where I killed a large buck 

36 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

at three hundred yards distance. On my way home 
I killed a large doe at a hundred and fifty yards. 
I saw two elk tracks. Cornelius, who had returned 
before me, had killed an old doe and had crossed 
the trail of a large band of elk — forty or fifty, he 
thought — that had passed through our hunting 
grounds the day before. One of the deer that he 
had killed before had been eaten by some large 
animal. 

November lo was mild again, and the snow 
too noisy for hunting. I found deer very scarce, 
and believed that they must have left. I saw but 
one and got that at long range. On my return to 
camp I found John had come back with the horses. 
On his way home on the 4th he was lost in a snow- 
storm and lay out all night. 

Now that we had the horses, we packed into 
camp the game that we had killed, and Cornelius 
killed another large buck. On the following day 
the work of bringing in the game continued. I 
went hunting in the morning, but saw only four 
deer, and reached camp on my return just before 
one of the fiercest snowstorms I ever experienced. 
The wind blew fiercely, and the snow fell fast, 
while the thermometer went down to 5 degrees 
below zero at 7 P. M. The next day it was still 
colder, 1 6 degrees below, but windless. We packed 

37 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

up and moved camp to Willow Creek, where there 
was very little wood. At 6 o'clock the thermometer 
was 5 degrees below zero. We slept on the snow 
without putting up a tent, and went to bed early 
to save firewood. The next day it was warmer, 
20 degrees above zero at sunrise, and there was 
every sign of a hard storm. We determined to go 
to Highwood Creek without delay and reached 
Mr. Hackshaw's ranch by dark. A few miles 
from the base of the mountains the snow was 
almost all gone, except what had fallen a few days 
since. It was reported from Benton that Tilden 
had been elected President, which greatly rejoiced 
me. 

After a few days at the ranch, I asked Mr. 
Hackshaw to take me to Fort Benton, and we set 
out on the i8th of November. In the town I 
found the result of the recent election still in doubt, 
and the Democrats very much wrought up over the 
belief that the opposition was determined to hold 
the control of the Government at any cost. So 
strong was the feeling that Colonel Donelly wrote 
to a prominent Civil War comrade, now residing 
in Illinois, that Montana was prepared to furnish 
a regiment of men to assist in seating Tilden. 

At that time Fort Benton was remarkable as 
being the most orderly place in the Territory, per- 

38 



WLm. 


! 
' 1 

• - — 
• 


f 


! 




■d 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

haps in any State or Territory. There were twenty 
saloons in the place, yet I never knew a town more 
free from disorders of any kind. In past years, 
when two or three "bull outfits" happened to meet 
there, the men connected with them, having been 
out on the plains for several months, would often 
set out to have a good time, and would be very 
boisterous in the work of "painting the town red." 
This had been carried to a point where It became 
an unbearable nuisance, and at a recent election the 
best people, saloon-keepers and all, had wished to 
elect a set of county officers who should reform 
things. They had chosen a sheriff,^** John J. 
Healy, a man noted for high character and fear- 
lessness, a county police judge, who was a dis- 
charged U. S. soldier of proper characteristics, and 
other officers of like stamp, and a strong public 
sentiment sustained all these. At the least dis- 
order the offender was brought before the police 
judge, who promptly fined him fifty dollars or 
imposed a jail sentence, or both. This course was 
firmly carried out until the little jail was full to 
overflowing, and by that time the disorderly class 
recognized that the public were determined to have 
good order, and accepted the situation. 

After two weeks pleasantly spent at Fort Ben- 
ton, I started on December 3 by wagon for the 

39 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

ranch of Oscar dinger on Belt Creek, about thirty 
miles to the south of Fort Benton. Here I re- 
mained until February 7, 1877. Deer were abund- 
ant in the foothills of the Highwood Mountains 
and Belt Creek valley. The weather was bracing 
and splendid. For most of the time it was a com- 
fort and pleasure to be all day out of doors, espe- 
cially when one had an object in view — the finding 
of meat for eight healthy souls and two dogs. Withl 
this feeling and with my love for hunting, it may 
be understood that these sixty-six days were greatly 
enjoyed. During thirty-seven days of this time the 
temperature in the middle of the day was so mild 
that the snow melted, and sometimes this melting 
continued through the night. On only two days 
was there rain. The temperature was above zero 
for forty-five days, and at least fifty days were 
sunshiny. The minimum temperatures for Janu- 
ary were 16 degrees below zero on the 23d, and 
26 degrees below zero on the 24th. In February 
the minimum temperature was 15 degrees below 
zero on the i8th. 

The waters of Belt Creek were open over the 
rapids most of the winter, and on the 5th of 
February, Donelly and I went fishing near the 
ranch, and after fishing two hours on this warm 
day he had caught twenty-four mountain trout and 

40 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

I had caught twenty-three ; my twenty-three weigh- 
ing, after being dressed, sixteen pounds. I sent 
these to Fort Benton with my friend Donelly. I 
did most of the hunting for the ranch, though 
dinger occasionally went with me to help pack in 
the game. 

During my stay here I exchanged my horse 
Charlie for dinger's mare Kate, a little animal 
only fourteen hands high, well formed and endur- 
ing, and trained through dinger's long use of her 
in hunting as a most perfect hunting animal. I 
valued her very highly and owned and cared for 
her during the remainder of her life. At this date 
she was six years of age, and she died at my ranch 
on the Grey Bull River in 1893, which made her 
twenty-one years of age at death. Olinger had a 
well-trained dog, Major, thoroughly broken to fol- 
low at heel, and if a deer was wounded he always 
caught and held it. 

At this time and earlier, the plains bordering 
the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, the Marias 
River, the Judith Basin and Musselshell country 
and the Yellowstone Valley on the south were 
roamed over by antelope and buffalo in countless 
numbers. In the foothills of the mountains which 
rose from the plains were large bands of elk and 
white and black-tail deer in great abundance. Many 

4J 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

of the early settlers of that day, as a means of 
livelihood, devoted their time to obtaining the 
hides of all these animals and poisoning the car- 
casses with strychnine to secure the hides of the 
large gray wolf, the coyote and other carnivorous 
animals.^^ These hides, after being dried, were 
salable at the various trading stores. One man, 
Barker, had a record of killing thirty-two antelope 
In one day. As the antelope left the Missouri 
River, after watering, they went up a narrow 
coulee in the Bad Lands, from which there was no 
outlet. Barker followed them, and by his repeating 
rifle, as they attempted td pass him, he killed 
thirty-two. 

At this time dinger had a few cattle and had 
settled down on his ranch to attend to them, while 
Barker was prospecting for precious metals at the 
head of Belt Creek. In the end, as the discoverer 
of the Barker Mine, which I was glad tO' learn he 
sold for from $15,000 to $20,000, he was success- 
ful. Col. Geo. Clendenin, already spoken of, be- 
came in after years manager of these mines, and 
eventually lost his life there. 

Although I was kept fairly busy In securing meat 
and packing in the deer, occasionally assisted by 
Olinger, I visited Fort Benton during the Christ- 
mas week, leaving the ranch on the 24th of Dc- 

42 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

cember. When we reached the river opposite the 
town, we found to our dismay that the ice was 
running so thick that it was impossible to operate 
the ferry boat, and we could not get across. We 
were without blankets, food or firewood; the tem- 
perature stood at 12 degrees below zero. There 
was no house behind us for twenty miles, and be- 
fore us ran the turbid river, surging with broken 
ice. We were at a loss what to do. At last some 
one suggested that three miles below there was a 
cabin where we might find shelter. We went there, 
found the owner at home, and he took us in and 
made us as comfortable as possible. The next 
morning we found the ice not running and the 
river frozen over, and by careful sounding with 
an ax and pole, and stepping from one ice cake to 
another, we finally crossed over and reached Benton 
at noon. 

As I walked about the town with a friend, I saw 
on its outskirts a very large adobe building^^ with 
a high adobe wall in front, and asking about it, I 
was told that fifty years before it had been built as 
a fort and trading store by the Northwestern Fur 
Company; that it had only one entrance through 
the outer wall, and was built for defense against 
Indians. 

I asked my friend why it was that it was no 

43 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

longer occupied, and he replied, "It is occupied," 
and gave me the following explanation : 

"When a military post was established at this 
point, this old adobe building, apparently unoccu- 
pied, appeared just what was needed for a fort, and 
the Government at once purchased it and installed 
its garrison — two companies of infantry. No 
sooner were the soldiers settled in their new quar- 
ters than the inhabitants, who had occupied these 
quarters for twenty-five or" thirty years, sallied 
forth in defense of their home, and in bands of 
thousands assaulted this detachment of the United 
States Army. The severe conflict lasted for a week 
or more. Every device of the military art was 
brought to bear, every pound of the druggist's art 
was applied. All efforts were futile. After a gal- 
lant fight this detachment of the U. S. Army was 
driven bleeding from the fort and compelled to 
take refuge in a frame building in the center of the 
town, where it was quartered at the time of my 
Christmas visit." 

Early in February the blacktail and whitetail 
deer were both becoming poor, and as winter was 
now at its worst, I determined to go to Helena, 
Mont., for the rest of the winter and spring. The 
contrast between life on a ranch engaged in hard 
work, and living in town seemed worth trying, and 

44 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

accordingly I started. After spending a week In 
town I went with I. Hill, the manager of one of the 
stores, to Fort Shaw, in his buckboard, and from 
there to Helena, which I reached February 17. 
Here I spent the remainder of the winter. 

My chief recreation in Helena was long-range 
target shooting with a few gentlemen of that city 
interested in this sport. 



45 



1877 

I spent part of the summer of 1877 journeying 
along the Missouri River from a point opposite 
Helena to Fort Benton. Apart from my hunting 
experiences, the most interesting thing I saw was 
the Great Falls of the Missouri, about thirty miles 
above Fort Benton. 

There are a succession of falls, extending seven 
or eight miles up the river. The lower falls form 
a cascade of eighty feet fall for half the width of 
the stream, the other half having a slope of about 
45 degrees. At high water, these falls In volume 
and In evidence of power are second only to 
Niagara in this country. 

The Great Falls of the Yellowstone are more 
beautiful, but lack the grandeur and mass of the 
two just named. Of the Great Falls of the Mis- 
souri, perhaps the most interesting is one about 
three miles above the main fall, with a cascade of 
about forty feet fall for the full width of the river. 

I had come so far north as this, expecting that a 
friend from Fort Benton would accompany me 

46 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

through the Yellowstone National Park In the early 
autumn, but in this I was disappointed, I therefore 
prepared to make the trip alone. 

I had not yet discovered the luxury of traveling 
with a pack outfit, and was using a light, two-horse 
spring wagon, driven by Levi, a Missouri colored 
man, who also acted as cook. The route lay 
through the Judith Basin, thence around the great 
hills of the Crazy Woman Mountains to the Yel- 
lowstone River, and up that stream. The Judith 
Basin, formed by the Highwood Mountains and 
Belt Mountains on the north and west and the 
Snowy and Moccasin ranges on the south and east, 
was rich in grass, and at that season of the year 
was usually the resort of immense herds of buffalo. 
Buffalo were usually followed up by the Indians. I 
was advised by many old-timers and frontiersmen 
that it was very dangerous to make the trip through 
that basin at this time of the year. The only white 
men on the route were a ranchman at a trading 
store on the Musselshell, and another ranch on the 
Yellowstone River, five miles above the mouth of 
Big Timber Creek. As the abandonment of this 
route would oblige me to give up my trip through 
*he Yellowstone for that year, I determined to go 
on. Levi, who had seen a good deal of the In- 
dians, was willing to go with me. 

47 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

On the 15 th of August, we passed from the 
waters of Belt Creek through the Belt Pass and 
into the Basin, which contained many rich valleys 
and has long been occupied by stockmen. We 
passed through the Basin without mishap, though 
almost every night there was an Indian scare. In 
the outfit there was a little red mule that was a 
splendid sentinel, for whenever anything ap- 
proached the camp he would give a succession 
of snorts. We reached the vicinity of the Judith 
Gap August 19. 

On making camp on the evening of August 19, 
we discovered the advance of a herd of buffalo 
coming through the Judith Gap from the Mussel- 
shell country. The next morning camp was not 
moved, but we approached the outskirts of the 
immense herd with care, so as not to alarm the 
main body of the buffalo. After killing what meat 
we needed — a fat calf — a high butte was climbed, 
and we had a view of the whole gap, about one 
mile in width. It was a warm, lazy day, inducing 
in man or beast that common malady known as 
spring fever. There, in sight of us, were about 
5,000 buffalo, lolling about in various positions, 
some grazing, some lying down and some old bulls 
sitting up. The scene was new to me, and I viewed 
it for an hour through a good p^ir of field glasses. 

48 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

I noticed then, for the first time, a peculiarity in 
which the buffalo differs from other split-hoofed 
animals. Cattle in rising from a prone position 
lift the hind part first and then the fore part, as 
do also the deer family. A white-tail deer, or ante- 
lope, if alarmed, will spring from the ground hind 
and fore parts at once, apparently. My observation 
that day with wild buffalo was that they rose with 
the fore feet first, and then the hind feet. A horse 
rises in the came way. On that lazy spring fever 
day there were quite a number of old bulls sitting 
up, something like a dog, lolling about and enjoy- 
ing the sunshine, and from this peculiarity of the 
buffalo doubtless old Sitting Bull derived his name. 

At 1 1 o'clock at night a courier passed our camp 
with dispatches for the Seventh Cavalry, Colonel 
Sturgis, with orders to repair at once to Fort Ellis 
in consequence of the setback received on the Big 
Hole River by General Gibbon in his attack on the 
Nez Perces Indians, who, after repulsing the onset 
of the soldiers, continued their march toward the 
Yellowstone and the buffalo country. 

We reached the trading post of Mr. Fettig at 
the forks of the Musselshell on the 20th, and 
spent a day at the camp getting information from 
Mr. Gordon and other ranchmen of that vicinity 
as to the best route for wheels to the Yellowstone 

49 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Valley. They agreed to put me on the trail of the 
only bull train that had ever passed through that 
country around the eastern foothills of the Crazy 
Woman Mountains. 

We left camp on the Musselshell, August 22, 
accompanied by Mr. Gordon, who volunteered to 
stay with me until the wagon road was reached. 
At noon we passed Big Elk Creek, where we met 
a Mr. Miller, who had established himself in a 
dugout on the side of the mountain and was look- 
ing after a considerable band of Oregon horses in 
a splendid range. We camped eight or ten miles 
beyond. 

It was many years afterward — in Billings, Mon- 
tana — that I met this same Mr. Miller, who' in- 
formed me that the night after we had met on Big 
Elk, a band of Piegan Indians had swooped down 
on his band of fifty horses and made away with 
them. The country was too sparsely settled to get 
together a force sufficient to pursue. The loss did 
not appear to have discouraged him, for at the 
time we met again he was a prosperous sheepman 
of the Yellowstone Valley. 

Just one year afterward, in the same vicinity, a 
war party of the same tribe made a dash at about 
1 1 o'clock at night on a large horse freight outfit 
loaded with rifles and ammunition for Walter 

so 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

Cooper, of Bozeman, Montana, which was camped 
at the big spring in the Judith Gap. But for the 
vigilance of the night herder in giving timely 
alarm, and the vigorous fusilade given them by the 
foreman of the outfit and the drivers, they would 
have made off with about fifty horses. My small 
party was camped about six miles away on the road 
to the forks of the Musselshell. We were not 
disturbed. 

After dropping Into the wagon road from 
Judith Gap to the Yellowstone River near Porcu- 
pine Butte, Mr. Gordon left me on the 24th of 
August, much to my regret. He is still living, as Is 
understood. Without mishap we reached the Yel- 
lowstone Valley at the mouth of Big Timber, and 
made camp in the first or lower caiion of that 
stream on the evening of the 26th. We had passed 
only two ranches on the route — Gage's and Car- 
penter's — the only ranches seen since leaving the 
Musselshell. This camp was within two miles 
of the present site of the flourishing city of 
Livingston. 

At daylight of the morning of the 27th, camp 
was aroused by a commotion among the horses 
made by a black bear, which had been feasting on 
bullberrles all night In a neighboring thicket. Levi, 
who was Investigating the cause of the racket, had 

SI 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

a close shot at the bear, but on pulling the trigger 
found no cartridge in the rifle, and the bear escaped. 

It was a cool and sharp morning, and old Bones, 
the horse I had been riding for ten days, was made 
lively by the crisp air, and on my mounting, in a 
shorter time than it takes to write it, he had com- 
menced to pitch and eventually threw me a somer- 
sault over his head. I landed on my back — a very 
hard fall, the effects of which I felt for several 
days. This was the second fall he had given me, 
and I determined on revenge. I decided that I 
would never mount him again, and that I would 
get rid of him on the earliest opportunity. He 
had been bought as a harness horse in Helena, but 
on the first hard pull he had balked and would go 
neither forward nor backward. After worrying 
with him for a day or so, it became necessary to 
put my pet hunting mare Kate in his place in the 
wagon. I had been riding old Bones ever since. A 
man who was to travel with me through the Park 
agreed to ride him. 

After this catastrophe, we proceeded through the 
canon, but soon reached a point where, on account 
of the sidling road over a projecting spur of the 
mountain, it was necessary for the men to pack our 
plunder over the spur, and then, by ropes, hold the 
wagon from turning over. 

52 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

As we were soon to come upon the trail where 
the moving Nez Perces Indians had passed 
through the Yellowstone National Park, I give 
here a short account of what we saw and heard of 
their operations there. 

The Nez Perces Indians^^ had arrived at 
Henry's Lake, near the western border of Yellow- 
stone Park, on their route to the buffalo country, 
and to a refuge from the whites across the Canada 
border. It is not out of place to relate in detail 
the causes of this outbreak of this tribe. 

Some time about 1840, the Nez Perces, as well 
as the Flatheads and some other tribes of Indians 
on the western slope of the Continental Divide, 
had been converted to Christianity, through the 
efforts of Father de Smet, of St. Louis, and his co^ 
laborers, and had remained Christians. The Nez 
Perces had a valuable reservation around the 
Lemhi Agency on Snake River, which soon at- 
tracted the greed of the aggressive white men. 
They commenced a system of encroachments, re- 
sulting first in individual killing, then the killing 
increased until the entire tribe turned out on the 
war path and all the white men in their reach were 
killed. The movements of the military forced 
them to action. 

Under Chief Joseph and Chief Looking Glass 
S3 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

they then began that memorable march to the 
buffalo country on the eastern slope of the Rockies, 
and thence toward a refuge across the Canada 
boundary. A truce was declared in passing through 
settlements on the western slope, and in passing 
out of the head of the Bitter Root Valley and on 
to the headwaters of the Jefferson, no depredations 
were committed. On the Big Hole River, a tribu- 
tary of the Jefferson, they were overtaken by a 
force of soldiers sent out from Fort Shaw, under 
General Gibbon. Although with an inferior force, 
with his enemy armed with repeating rifles, more 
effective in a fight in the brush than the army 
rifle, he made a vigorous attack on their camp at 
daylight. The Indians rallied, made a firm re- 
sistance, and effectually repulsed the attack. Gibbon 
could not renew the fight without reinforcements, 
and the Indians continued on their pre-arranged 
route. The Nez Perces were much exasperated at 
the killing of a number of their women, either with 
arms in their hands or by stray bullets.^^ After 
this fight, these Indians killed every white man and 
took all the horses that came within their reach. 
Up to the time of their arrival at Henry's Lake, 
eight or ten white men had been killed and the 
teams of a freight outfit gobbled up. 

Chief Joseph showed much military skill in the 
54 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

management of the campaign. Whenever he 
passed an important trail leading toward the white 
settlements, a scouting party was sent down that 
trail far enough to avoid surprise. George Heren- 
deen had been sent out from Fort Ellis to learn the 
whereabouts of these Indians, and in going out to 
Henry's Lake, where he expected to find traces of 
them, he passed at the crossing of the Madison a 
camp of some fifteen or twenty miners from the 
Pony mines, acting as scouts, and with the further 
intention of making a dash on the camp of hostiles 
to secure a lot of their horses. Herendeen reached 
the vicinity of Henry's Lake about the time that 
the Indians arrived there, climbed a tree and saw 
enough to satisfy him that this was the hostile outfit 
he was in search of. Returning by the camp of 
miners on the Madison — about twelve miles from 
Henry's Lake — he warned them of the situation, 
and advised vigilance on their part. They ex- 
pressed perfect confidence in their ability to take 
care of themselves, and the probability is that they 
at once went to sleep. Late at night a band of 
Joseph's scouts came down the trail, discovered the 
camp, and, after locating the horses, by a fusilade 
scattered the miners and made off with their horses, 
much to the miners' astonishment. They were left 
afoot on the wrong side of the Madison River. 

55 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

In the meantime, a military force of seven or 
eight hundred men, cavalry and mounted infantry, 
had been concentrated and was following these 
Indians, at this time about two days' march be- 
hind them. The next heard of Joseph's band was 
at the Lower Geyser Basin, near which they sur- 
prised and captured a party of tourists; Mr. Car- 
penter, his wife and sister-in-law and four or five 
men from about Helena, Montana, among them 
Albert Oldham, whom I knew. Chief Joseph 
rescued the two women and a younger brother and 
protected them. The young bucks commenced a 
fusilade on the men, apparently killing Carpenter 
and wounding several more^ — among them Albert 
Oldham — as they took to the brush. 

As it turned out. Carpenter was merely stunned 
by a scalp wound, and afterward revived, and he 
and Oldham were taken care of by Howard's men 
as they came up. On reaching the vicinity of the 
Yellowstone, Joseph's scouts surprised another 
party of four white men camped just above Great 
Falls and killed one man, the others escaping to 
the brush. Before fording the Yellowstone, Chief 
Joseph gave the two white women a pony each and 
started them down the trail on the west side of that 
stream. At the pass over the Mount Washburn 
range, they met a scouting party of cavalry under 

56 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

Lieut. Schofield, who took charge of them and de- 
livered them at Farrel's ranch at the mouth of 
Trail Creek. Mrs. Carpenter then supposed her 
husband had been killed. 

Two of the men who escaped through the timber 
when fired upon at their camp just above Great 
Falls, had reached the Mammoth Hot Springs, 
where they met McCartney. One of these men 
from Helena induced McCartney to go back with 
him and try to find his friend, who on taking to 
the brush had cried out to those in front, "I am 
shot." He might be alive and wounded, he 
thought. McCartney acceded at once. They 
found his dead friend — he had been finished by 
the hostiles — burled him and started on their 
return. 

The trail McCartney and companion traveled, 
via Tower Falls, branched from a much traveled 
trail, coming down the East Fork of the Yellow- 
stone, or Lamar River, passing that stream by 
Baronett's Bridge. As soon as Chief Joseph's out- 
fit reached the East Fork, he sent a strong scout- 
ing party down the trail toward the Mammoth 
Hot Springs, and to the lower river, thus getting 
behind McCartney and companion. Five miles 
below these springs, at the mouth of Gardner's 
River, was Henderson's ranch, and at that point 

57 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

was a scouting party of eight or ten citizens occu- 
pying the one room-cabin, and bent on getting a lot 
of Indian ponies. 

The Nez Perces scouting party pushed on to 
Mammoth Hot Springs on the 2d of September, 
killing one man, the companion of the man with 
McCartney; two others — one a colored man — 
escaping to the brush. They pushed on toward the 
Yellowstone at once. It was Sunday morning, a 
warm, pleasant day, and the "boys," having noth- 
ing else to do, determined to go a-fishing in the 
Yellowstone River, about three hundred yards 
away. Their horses were picketed near the cabin, 
their rifles and camping outfit were for the most 
part in the cabin. About the time the fish began 
to bite freely, the Indian scouting party, having 
made a quick reconnaissance, dashed into the camp, 
swooped up the horses, set fire toi the cabin, and 
were away on the back trail in a very short time. 

In the meantime, McCartney and companion, 
on their return, had almost reached the head of the 
trail, coming up a fork of Gardner's River, about 
three miles from the Hot Springs. McCartney 
told me that when about fifty yards from the point 
where the trail dropped into the gorge of that 
stream, he was met by a band of loose horses, evi- 
dently driven. As they came over the hill in sight 

58 



'Memories of a Bear Hunter 

of McCartney, they stopped, with tHcir ears 
pricked up. McCartney recognized the situation 
at once and prepared to act. In the meantime the 
Indians, noticing the action of the horses, rushed 
forward and opened fire on McCartney and com- 
panion, who by this time were in full run to a 
willow thicket about two hundred and fifty yards 
up the valley. They were not hit, and in a, short 
time were under cover, firing back at the Indians. 
These had no time to waste, and cutting the lash 
rope of the pack animal, took only the horse. 

It so happened that Col. Sturgis, of the Seventh 
Cavalry, who was then near the lower outlet of 
Clark's Fort Canon, watching for the Nez Perces, 
had sent two scouts with dispatches for General 
Howard, who was following up the Nez Perces. 
In moving around to avoid the Indians, they had 
missed General Howard and were on the way to 
Fort Ellis, traveling the same trail by which this 
Indian scouting party was returning. The two 
parties met on Black Tail Deer Creek. With the 
two scouts, Goff and Leonard, was an Indian boy 
of about fifteen years, a protege of Goff. The 
Indians discovered the approach of the white men, 
and had time to prepare an ambush for them. 
Some of them hid in the willow brush within ten 
feet of the trail ; the others took positions on a hill, 

59 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

out of sight. The whites came along unsuspicious 
of danger, until the party in ambush fired. The 
Indian boy fell from his horse, wounded, drawing 
his revolver as he fell. Leonard had his horse 
killed. He immediately cut the lash rope of the 
pack horse, mounted it, and he and Goff took the 
back track under the rapid fire of the whole outfit. 
Goff received a painful flesh wound in the neck. 
As soon as possible they plunged down a gorge 
leading to the Yellowstone, and were not followed 
further. 

On the river they met a white scout, who 
brought them into the camp of the soldiers. The 
body of the Indian boy was never found, nor could 
any information as to his fate be obtained after- 
ward. In my spring wagon I took Goff to Fort 
Ellis, and obtained these particulars from him. 
Afterward, while carrying a dispatch from Fort 
Ellis to General Howard, Leonard was ambushed 
and killed by these same Indians. 

The foregoing digression has been made as to 
the movements of the Nez Perces in order to 
render more intelligible what follows. 

After passing through the lower Yellowstone 
canon, we arrived at Farrell's ranch at the mouth 
of Trail Creek in the forenoon of August 28. At 

60 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

this point the road to Bozeman leaves the Yellow- 
stone. 

I halted here to await developments. I found 
the rumors heard within the last week, of the ad- 
vance of the hostile Indians through the National 
Park, and of the killing of the tourists that fell 
into their hands, were mostly true, and as have 
been told in the retrospect before outlined. 

That night Mrs. Cowan, her sister and a 
younger brother arrived. They were then sup- 
posed to be the only survivors of that party of 
about ten who had been captured near the Lower 
Geyser Basin. 

On the night of the 29th two companies of the 
Second Cavalry arrived from Fort Ellis. About 
midnight the camp was aroused by the attempt of 
Indians to steal horses. They were met by a vig- 
orous fire and were driven off. On Sept. 2, Lieut.- 
Col. Gilbert, of the Seventh Infantry, reinforced 
the other two companies, and the force moved up 
the river. During this time, I made agreeable 
acquaintance with several officers, among them 
Lieut. H. L. Scott, of the Second Cavalry, a 
friendship which has been kept bright ever since, 
whether as Major Scott In Cuba and the Philip- 
pines, or as Colonel Scott of the West Point Mili- 
tary Academy. During this time, scouts Goff and 

61 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Leonard and Mr. McCartney and companion, who 
were ambushed by the hostile scouts, came into 
the camp. 

On the 6th of September, Colonel Gilbert, hav- 
ing failed tOi get in communication with Howard's 
command by the Yellowstone trail, came back, 
through the second Yellowstone canon and went 
up Miners Creek and over to the Madison River. 
Had he delayed one day longer he would have 
learned that General Howard was at the Yellow- 
stone Lake, and the hostile Indians had passed on 
through the Park. 

After this movement of troops, believing it 
would be some days before the situation could 
become settled, I determined to go back to Boze- 
man and await developments. I took Goff, the 
wounded scout, with me as far as Fort Ellis. 

On the 7th of September I had the satisfaction 
of selling old Bones to Quartermaster Adams, for 
a cavalry horse, to be forwarded to General 
Howard. Good luck to him. 

In a few days it was learned the hostile Indians 
had passed through the National Park, followed 
by Howard's forces. 

As there was still time to make a hasty trip 
through the Park before the severe winter set in, 
I determined to do so. I was urged not tO' make 

62 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

the attempt on account of the hostiles' sick or 
wounded that might have been left behind, and of 
other Indians. I recognized the risk, but since as 
a youngster I had served during the Mexican war 
as a mounted volunteer on the northwest frontier 
of Texas against the Comanches, and all the bad 
Indians of the Indian Territory and of the Kansas 
Territory who infested that frontier, I had some 
knowledge of Indian ways. Added to this, was 
the experience of four years* service in the war 
between the States. These experiences qualified 
me to judge of the credence to be placed in war 
rumors. I was anxious to make the trip. 

Only one man of suitable qualities could be 
found willing to make the trip — Jack Bean.^^ He 
knew the routes through the Park ; he was a good 
packer and mountain man, cautious, but resolute. 
We went light. I rode my hunting mare Kate; 
Jack his horse, and we packed my little red mule 
Dollie. I was armed with a .45-90-450 Sharpe 
long-range rifle, and Jack with a .44-40-200 re- 
peater. In addition tO' a belt of cartridges. Bean 
carried around his neck a shot bag pretty full of 
cartridges, so that in case of being set afoot, they 
would be handy. When Dollie was packed there 
was not much visible except her ears and feet. 

We left Bozeman September 1 1 , and nooned In 
63 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

the second canon of the Yellowstone on the 13th. 
While there, a portion of the cavalry that accom- 
panied Colonel Gilbert on his trip around from 
the head of the Madison, passed down toward 
Fort Ellis, having with them Cowan and Albert 
Oldham, who had survived the hostile Indians 
near the Lower Geysers. 

In the afternoon we passed up the river, by the 
cabin of Henderson, burned by hostiles, turned up 
Gardiner's River and camped within three miles of 
Mammoth Hot Springs. As this squad of cavalry 
passed down, we were conscious that we had to 
depend entirely on our own resources for the 
remainder of the trip, for there was probably not 
another white man in the Park. A note in my 
diary says: "International rifle match com- 
mences to>-day." 

Early on the 14th we went on to the Hot 
Springs, and spent two or three hours viewing their 
beauties and wonders. We passed by the cabin, 
in the door of which the Helena man had been 
killed a few days before, after having escaped the 
attack on the camp above the Grand Falls. 

Our trail passed up the gorge of one fork of 
Gardiner's River in sight of the falls of that 
stream. Just beyond where the trail emerged from 
the gorge, McCartney and his companion had met 

64 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

the hostile scouts. There lay their pack outfit, 
which they had left behind on the 2d or 3d of 
September, as before narrated. Among the aban- 
doned outfit was a miner's shovel, which these 
brave men had taken along to bury their friend, if 
dead. We camped that night on the lower Black- 
tail Creek. 

Early on the following day we passed the place 
where Goff and Leonard, the two scouts, had been 
ambuscaded. The willow brush was all "shot up," 
and near the trail was the dead sorrel horse that 
Leonard had ridden. We examined the vicinity 
of this ambuscade for the brave Indian boy who, 
as he fell, was seen to draw his revolver. His 
body was not found. That vicinity was afterward 
thoroughly searched, but no trace of this boy 
could be found. His fate has not been revealed. 
During the day's travel there were splendid moun- 
tain views from the trail. 

In the afternoon of September 15, the trail de- 
scended to the valley of the Yellowstone and passed 
within one mile of Baronett's Bridge,^^ across 
which Howard's command passed on the 5th of 
September In pursuit of the Nez Perces. We soon 
dropped Into the trail taken by that command and 
followed It back to Tower Falls. These falls are 
named from the tower-like ledges of rock that 

6s 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

overhang the falls, which have about the appear- 
ance of the Minnehaha Falls near Minneapolis, 
with a single drop of about one hundred and thirty 
feet. Just before dark Jack missed one of the 
horses, and for a while there was an Indian scare, 
but fortunately the animal had only wandered a 
short distance, and was soon recovered. We were 
a little more sensitive to Indian scares since two 
scouts from General Howard's command had been 
met on the 13th, who reported that about one 
hundred Bannock scouts from Lemhi Agency had 
deserted Howard, taking along more horses than 
belonged to them. They purposed to ford the 
Yellowstone about ten miles above the Grand Falls, 
where the Nez Perces crossed, and we were warned 
to be on the lookout for them, as they were in a 
dangerous temper. Our danger would come when 
we should leave the Grand Falls and pass through 
some open country in the direction of the Lower 
Geyser Basin about the 1 7th. 

It rained most of the night at Tower Falls^ — 
snowing higher up on the mountains to be crossed 
— but on the whole, we had a quiet night and sound 
sleep. When the rain ceased, about 9 o'clock A.M., 
September 1 6, we packed up and began the ascent 
of the Mt. Washburn range. For a few miles the 
trail followed an open ridge, exposing us to a 

66 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

northeast blizzard, accompanied by snow. After 
descending into the gulch, up which the trail leads 
to the pass in the range, the snow became deeper, 
and toward the summit of the range it was eighteen 
or twenty inches, knee-deep, which compelled 
us to dismount and lead the horses, as the ascent 
was very hard on them. In view of future possi- 
bilities, we made every effort to save their strength. 
It was one of the most laborious day's work of my 
experience. 

When near the summit, going through open pine 
timber, we discovered a large bear approaching us. 
He was moving along the side of the steep moun- 
tain to the left, about on a level, and would have 
passed out of safe range. I immediately dis- 
mounted and cut across as rapidly as the snow and 
the ascent admitted, to intercept him. He had not 
discovered us. When within about one hundred 
yards, watching my opportunity through the tim- 
ber, I fired at his side. He was hit, but not mor- 
tally. As my later experience told me, those bears 
when hit always either roll down hill or go "on 
the jump." On the jump this bear came, passing 
about twenty yards in our front. A cartridge was 
ready, and against Jack's injunction "Don't shoot," 
I fired; yet it failed to stop him, and Jack turned 
loose with his repeater, I shooting rapidly with my 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

rifle. By the time the bear had reached the gulch 
he stopped, to go no further. 

The excitement caused by this incident and my 
enthusiasm on killing my first grizzly — for I 
claimed the bear — dispelled at once all feelings of 
hardship and fatigue. The bear was a grizzly of 
about four hundred pounds weight, fat and with a 
fine pelt. We had not time to skin him, nor could 
the hide have been packed. After getting a few 
steaks, a piece of skin from over the shoulder and 
one of his forepaws, we continued our laborious 
ascent of the mountain. Still excited by this inci- 
dent, the work was now in the nature of a labor 
of love. 

Passing over the summit and down a quarter of 
a mile, through snow still a foot deep, there were 
evident fresh pony tracks in the snow on the trail, 
made by an animal that had passed on up the gulch 
to our right. Jack was called up, and as we were 
seriously discussing the situation, a most unearthly 
sound proceeded from up the gulch, which caused 
us to grasp our rifles and feel for cartridge belts. 
In a short time that unearthly blast sounded forth 
again, from the same direction, but this time end- 
ing with a "he-haw, he-haw." The mystery was 
dispelled; the voice was recognized. It was the 
voice of the army mule. He had discovered by 

68 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

scent the presence of our outfit, and soon came trot- 
ting down the trail, the embodiment of joy and 
good fellowship. He turned out to be a big Mis- 
souri or Kentucky mule, sixteen hands high, that 
had broken down under his pack and had been 
turned loose by Howard's command and was en- 
deavoring to follow on. He was a very forlorn 
looking animal. Our council of war decided he 
would soon perish in these deep snows. Jack Bean 
said the A. Q. M. at Fort Ellis was paying $30 
for delivery of all such animals. I told him that I 
would help to carry him along and he could get 
the $30 for him ; so we took him along and camped 
as soon as the snow became so little deep that the 
horses could feed In a small meadow, where camp 
was located. 

There was an abundance of dry pine, and a 
rousing fire to dry us out was soon in full blast. 
The day had not been cold, but the rain, snow and 
wind made It appear so. We made fine beds of 
pine boughs, but I ate too much bear and did not 
rest well. That bear was taking post-mortem re- 
venge on each of us. 

We reached the Grand Falls of the Yellowstone 
and spent a part of the morning there. I have 
seen Niagara, Montmorency, Minnehaha, the 
Great Falls of the Missouri and these falls. 

69 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Niagara is pre-eminent in grandeur, but its great 
volume and evidence of power and force have 
always inspired me with a feeling of fear and 
dread. The falls of the Missouri are next in 
grandeur, while these falls are a combination of 
the grand and beautiful, with great volume in times 
of high water and a clear width of about 150 feet 
and 360 feet single leap. Professor Hayden, who 
first measured their height, gives it as 396 feet. 
The canon below these falls is not less notable than 
the falls that give it cause. At the water level its 
width is about 250 feet; from above, the stream 
appears like a silvery thread. From the water's 
edge the sides of the caiion slope back at an angle 
of 35 degrees to 45 degrees and to a height of 
about 150 feet.^''^ To the feeling called forth by 
the grandeur of these falls is added that of admir- 
ation for the beautiful and varied colorings given 
out by their geological formations.^^ 

I have seen all the many cafions of the Con- 
tinental Divide above the Union Pacific Railroad. 
None, however, compares in everything that makes 
these wanders of nature notable and grand, with 
the caiion of the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone, 
just above the debouchment of that stream from 
the mountains. Its length is about eighteen miles. 
The lower six miles has sides sloping on the east 

70 



' Memories of a Bear Hunter 

at about 30 degrees, the high peak on that side 
being about 3,000 feet above the water level, there 
being only sufficient room in the caiion for a trail. 
The upper twelve miles of the canon is enclosed by 
solid walls of reddish granite almost vertical, with 
a width of about 1,000 feet at top. At the lower 
end of this part of the cafion the height of the 
walls Is about 1,500 feet above the water level, as 
attested by a railway survey up the western side. 
In this part large masses of granite are found, 
some of at least 300 cubic yards capacity, whose 
angles are as sharp and as little worn as if dis- 
rupted from the cliffs only yesterday. 

The caiion has one unusual feature; a tributary 
of sufficient volume to be classed as a river ap- 
proaches from the south, rushing through walls 
of granite 100 feet wide at the top and 600 feet 
deep, and leaps out from the wall of the caiion at 
least 300 feet above water level, the upper 200 
feet being a beautiful cascade. The lower 100 
feet passes over broken masses of granite lying at 
an angle of about 40 degrees. This caiion lies 
out of the traveled route, and a laborious day's 
work is needed to ascend and descend to the level 
of the valley of this tributary. 

We could not tarry long at the Great Falls, and 
took only a look at the second falls, about one- 

71 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

quarter of a mile above and 115 feet clear cascade. 
A few miles further on we passed near the camp 
where McCartney had buried his friend, and 
thence out into the prairie, ^^ extending to the mud 
geysers up stream, and away to the dividing ridge 
between the Yellowstone waters and Fire Hole 
waters — the head of Madison River. The depth 
of the snow and other circumstances determined 
me not to go further toward Yellowstone Lake, for 
the lake was no novelty, and we would see many 
geysers on the route chosen — to the Lower Geyser 
Basin, crossing the divide at the head of Alum 
Creek. Passing through a good deal of snow, we 
camped in the Alum Creek group of geysers, at the 
head of that creek. The most interesting sight in 
this group was a jet of steam passing up through 
waters of the creek, making a noise similar tO' that 
of the blower of a locomotive. 

The night was clear and cold, freezing water to 
an inch depth. We slept in comfort and awoke 
with a dense fog enveloping us, caused by the 
steam of the spluttering geysers. 

On September 17 we climbed the mountain to 
the Pass of Mountains, beyond which is the water- 
shed of the Fire Hole River. Up to this time we 
had been constantly on the lookout for Indian sign, 
and especially on the qui vive for the band of 

72 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

one hundred Bannock scouts reported as having 
deserted General Howard. On the summit we 
expected to strike the trail where they would prob- 
ably have passed if in this part of the Park. 

On the summit of the range we crossed this 
trail and were gratified to find no sign of anything 
passing after that made by Colonel Gilbert's cav- 
alry in its effort to overtake General Howard's 
command. 

We descended into the valley of the East Fork 
of Fire Hole River — now named Nez Perce Creek 
— by the wagon road cut out by Howard's com- 
mand, and were soon out of the snow; for the 
valley of Fire Hole is nearly one thousand feet 
lower than the Yellowstone River above the falls. 
We passed near the scene of the massacre of a 
portion of the Cowan party before alluded to. 
We also scared up one or two wild Indian ponies, 
left by the hostiles, that by their speed and activity 
to avoid the white man, showed no evidence of 
wishing to be rescued, as had the lone army mule. 
This was an unpleasant sign. Reaching the lower 
Fire Hole Basin before noon, we went into' camp, 
and devoted the remainder of the day to^ visiting 
various geysers of this wonderful formation, 
against the advice of Bean, who was for camping 
that night at the upper geysers ten miles further on. 

72> 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Having seen no Indian sign in the day's travel 
except the ponies, we had a quiet and restful night, 
and by noon on the 1 8th we were among the Upper 
Geyser group and spent the remainder of the day 
in wonder and admiration of what was seen. 

On the morning of the 19th we packed up and 
started on our return trip tO' Bozeman. After 
nooning at Lower Geysers, we passed on down 
the Fire Hole Valley. In about five miles a fresh 
pony track was noticed coming in from the west 
side and at a trot. In a short distance another 
pony track was observed going in the opposite 
direction and leaving the trail to the west. This 
was interpreted as meaning that a party of Indians 
for some cause had been left behind by the hostiles, 
and that they were hidden in the dense pine timber 
west of the trail, and had sent out scouts to watch 
the trail. We acted on this suggestion, and pushed 
on as fast as the jaded condition of our animals 
would admit — at a trot — passing through the 
upper caiion of the Madison, admirable for its 
facilities for an ambush as well as for its grand 
scenery. On emerging from this canon, we left all 
trails, crossed the Madison and about sundown 
camped on a bluff with an outlook to our rear, 
having traveled this day at least thirty-five miles. 
The plan adopted was to go into^ camp, cook 

74 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

supper, and after dark, replenishing the camp-fire, 
travel about two hours through the timber and 
make a dry camp. 

While Bean was attending to camp duties, I 
went back far enough to command a view of five 
hundred yards to the rear, across the Madison, and 
with a field glass kept a good lookout for hostile 
signs, but detected none. In accordance with the 
plan, we traveled about two hours through thick 
pine timber and made camp in a little meadow 
sufKcient for horse feed. 

During this night's tramp we occasionally 
jumped small bands of antelope feeding on little 
patches of open ground. This was the only in- 
stance in my twenty-five years' experience among 
these animals when I found them using in timber. 
Afterward I saw a buck antelope near the Lower 
Geyser Basin.^^ With an early start, we break- 
fasted near the Madison. We nooned in the 
upper canon, having a feast of trout and whitefish, 
the first square meal we had had since the start 
from Bozeman, except bacon and grizzly. Pass- 
ing out of the canon, we camped near the point 
where the Nez Perces had set afoot the scouting 
party before related. We were now out of reach 
of Indian scares, and in the prairie country on the 
Upper Madison. 

75 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Before entering the upper canon on the 2ist of 
September it was necessary to decide on one of 
two routes to Bozeman. One, and the shortest, 
was over a high mountain divide to the head of 
the West Gallatin River, and thence down that 
stream; the other to continue down the Madison 
River. I was tired of climbing mountains and 
wallowing through snow, and chose to go down 
hill, so we took the last route. 

Our camp on the 21st was near a large fork of 
the Madison, just above its junction with that 
stream above the upper canon. It was a beautiful 
valley, and on that day was literally full of ante- 
lope; in fact, in my entire sojourn in the North- 
west, I have never seen more antelope than in the 
forenoon of that day. 

On the 2 2d we met the first white face since the 
13th, a Frenchman, on his way as a scout to 
Henry's Lake. With him Bean made a trade for 
the army mule we had still all safe, whereby he was 
to deliver the mule at Fort Ellis. After traveling 
down the upper valley of the Madison during the 
2 2d and 23d, we reached Whitney's ranch across the 
river from the Bozeman and Virginia City road. 
At this camp we got plenty of milk and thirty-two 
eggs, which we divided equally between us. Bean 
ate his half, sixteen eggs, that night and the fol- 

76 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

lowing morning — eight hard-boiled eggs at a sit- 
ting. No ill-effects were heard of during the night. 
I took my sixteen eggs in broken doses. 

We here received late papers telling how the 
Nez Perces had out-maneuvered Colonel Sturgis 
of the Seventh Cavalry, and of their escape. 

On the 24th we crossed the Madison, and 
dropped into the wagon road leading to Bozeman 
from Virginia City. Here some alarm was caused 
by our pack mule, Dollie, to which after getting 
into the open country, we had not paid much at- 
tention, for we had allowed her to trot on behind 
at will. As before remarked, when packed for the 
road there was nothing visible except her ears and 
feet under a pile of bedding with a white wagon 
sheet on top. Soon after getting on to the Boze- 
man road, we met twelve empty farm wagons that 
had been hired by General Howard to carry the 
impedimenta of his command, had been paid off 
and were on their way to their homes on the west 
side of the Rockies. We stopped the head team, 
passed the news and went ahead. In a short time 
was heard a tremendous clattering and rumpus 
behind. On looking back, there was Dollie trot- 
ting along, innocent and apparently careless of her 
surroundings. As the lead wagon was met, the 
horses, after being kept in the road a short time, 

77 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

could not be held, but bolted to the right on the 
full run. The next wagon followed suit at the 
proper time until the entire outfit of twelve wagons 
was on a rampage, tearing through the fortunately 
open and level prairie, Dollie in the meantime 
keeping the center of the road. To all the wit- 
nesses to this scene it was most amusing and ludi- 
crous, a scare caused by an innocent, patient and 
careless little pack mule, who had nothing what- 
ever to do with her fearful looking makeup. That 
scene caused its only two witnesses to forget for a 
time at least all the labors and hardships and risks 
from hostiles and snowstorms of the past ten days. 

Without occurrence of especial interest, we 
reached Bozeman on September 26, after an 
absence of fifteen days, having traveled on an 
average twenty miles per day. 

To me, this was the most eventful trip, for its 
duration, of my long sojourn among the North- 
western mountains, whether be considered the un- 
questioned danger from hostile Indians, the 
scarcely slighter danger from the storms and deep 
snows among these mountains, or the exposure, the 
labor and hardships incident to traveling five days 
through snow from five to twenty inches deep, the 
only shelter from the storms at night during the 
trip being that afforded by a small wagon sheet. 

78 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

I felt fully compensated, however, for all these 
risks and hardships by the privilege of viewing the 
canons of the Yellowstone and the Madison, those 
beautiful and grand falls at Tower Creek, and at 
the Yellowstone, the Indescribable wonders of the 
upper and lower geyser basins; and last, though 
not least, by the opportunity afforded of killing 
my first grizzly. 



I 878 

After seven months spent In civilization about 
St. Louis and In the State of Illinois, my soul 
began once more to long for the wilds of the 
Northwest. I did not greatly strive to resist the 
temptation, and after a short time returned tO' the 
headwaters of the Missouri River. 

It was July 17, 1878, when I left ChicagOi on 
the steamer Peerless, for the lake trip. Touching 
at Mackinac, Sault Ste. Marie and Houghton, I 
reached Duluth. I left there July 28, and In due 
time reached Bismarck. The next steamer tO' leave 
for the upper river was the Red Cloud, on which 
I took passage August 7. We reached Cow Island 
Rapids August 24, and just here I did not know 
precisely what to do. However, after a time, 
through the kindness of Colonel George Clenden- 
nin, I arranged to make a hunt for the fall months 
with an Englishman, Mr. C. Messlter, who was 
expected to arrive by the next steamer. 

We were to start from Carroll, a landing on the 
south side of the river, not far above the mouth 

80 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

of the Musselshell River, and to hunt in the foot- 
hills of the mountain enclosing the famous Judith 
Basin on the head of the Judith River, which 
enters the Missouri above Cow Island. ^^ 

At that time game was abundant here — deer, 
elk and buffalo, with a few antelope. ^^ 

Colonel Clendennin arranged for a two-horse 
wagon and team, saddle horses, a guide, teamster 
and cook, the expense to be divided between Mes- 
siter and myself. I left Cow Island on the steamer 
Benton, September 2, and reaching Carroll the 
next day, found all the outfit ready, except Mes- 
siter, some tents and other camp fixtures. 

It was understood that I should take the outfit 
away from the river about three days' travel to the 
base of the Judith Mountains, make camp there 
and then send the team back for Messiter, the tents 
and other baggage. 

Colonel Clendennin had arranged that I 
should purchase a horse belonging toi a wood- 
chopper. Pike Landusky,^-*^ who had a woodyard 
across the river from Carroll. The day after my 
arrival I crossed the river, and after a few miles' 
search found Landusky, inspected the horse, liked 
his looks and paid his price. I took him with me, 
swimming him across the river from the rear of 
the dugout In which I sat. He turned out to be 

81 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

an excellent animal, well trained for hunting. If 
you respected his prejudices, he was gentle enough; 
if you did not, he was certain to buck you off, as 
more than once he did me. 

Our outfit consisted of Fishel as guide; Hayden, 
teamster, and Derby, cook. The two-horse wagon 
was drawn by a pair of white horses, which I after- 
ward purchased in the division of the outfit and 
used them as pack animals until they died on the 
Grey Bull ranch. For three days we traveled 
through the Bad Lands, finding only alkali water, 
and no wood, except greasewood. It rained 
almost every day. Our protection at night was an 
ordinary wagon sheet, stretched as a tent. We 
had carried from Carroll a few sticks of wood in 
the wagon, but were saving of our fuel. We were 
not very comfortable. 

At the end of the second day we met a few buf- 
falo, the leaders of a large herd that during the 
summer and fall had been occupying the Judith 
Basin, and now as it happened were moving out 
before a party of Crows and Chief Tendoy's^* 
band of Bannock Indians from the Lemhi Agency 
west of the Rockies. 

On the 9th of September we camped on Box 
Elder Creek, and here found the first fresh water 
met with, and a fair amount of wood. Here we 

82 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

found large bands of buffalo and I killed what was 
needed for .meat by running them on horseback. 
The next day made a good drive to a camp on 
Arm ell's Creek, ^^ near the foot of the Judith 
Mountains, and here I determined to remain until 
Messlter should come up, sending back Hayden 
and the team for him If necessary. 

On this day I killed two buffalo bulls for bear 
bait, and FIshel In different localities killed two. 
We killed also several antelope and deer for camp 
meat. On the following day, while hunting for 
elk, I climbed one end of the Judith Mountalns^*^ 
and had a magnificent view across the valley of 
the Missouri, with the Bear Paw and Little Rocky 
Mountains to the north and the Moccasin Moun- 
tains on the west. The Missouri Is about forty 
miles distant and the Bear Paw and Little Rock- 
ies about seventy miles. 

My hunting companion, C. Messlter, reached us 
on September 13. He had been sent out by Major 
Reed's^'^ team with all his baggage. 

When we arose on the morning of September 
14 we found about three Inches of snow on the 
ground, and a little later Fishel, who had been 
looking over the country with the field glasses, re- 
ported that the carcass of one of the buffalo had 
been moved. We rode out toward the carcass, and 

83 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

on climbing on a bench of the mountain about a 
mile from the bait, discovered a large bear, which 
had evidently seen or smelt us, making off in the 
opposite direction. We followed him in the effort 
to get ahead of him, but he was too: swift for us. 

The snow was melting and the trail becoming 
difficult to follow. I became separated from Fishel 
and Messiter, and they first found the trail, and 
followed it until it entered a dense willow thicket 
on a small creek. They rode around it to see 
whether the bear had gone on, and when on the 
opposite side a huge bear rushed out and charged 
them fiercely. At first the horses did not wholly 
comprehend the situation, and the bear was close to 
their heels before they began to run. Fishel 
started back to the camp, to bring out a greyhound 
that Messiter had brought with him. I met him, 
and learning what had happened, I hurried to the 
scene of action and found Messiter already on a 
high rocky point overlooking the thicket, his horse 
being tied some distance further away. The clump 
of willows was dense and extended about a hun- 
dred yards up and down the small stream, and 
was fifty yards across. The stream, which was 
six or eight feet wide and two feet deep, meandered 
through the willows. 

Across the thicket we held a council of war and 
84 



^Memories of a Bear Hunter 

determined to stir the bear out. We thought that 
we could shoot through the brush with solid balls, 
and if we wounded him he might be angry enough 
to rush out. I rode up to within a short distance 
of the thicket on my side, but failed to hear any 
movement in it. Messiter, however, had some 
idea of where the bear lay, and it was determined 
that we should fire intO' that locality from each 
side and see if that would induce him to move 
about. About this time Fishel arrived with the 
greyhound, but no orders or persuasion could get 
him into the thicket. 

Messiter and I now began to bombard the place 
where the bear was supposed to be. I was shoot- 
ing a 450-grain solid ball with 90 grains of powder, 
and this penetrated the willow brush admirably. 
On the other hand, Messiter's rifle was a double- 
barreled Long rifle, carrying a 160-grain express 
bullet, with 120 grains of powder. This bullet 
was too light to penetrate far. We finally made 
his hiding place so warm that he rushed to the 
upper end of the thicket and charged fiercely out 
to Messiter's side. Each one of us got in a shot 
and each wounded him, when he retired to the 
thicket and again lay still. Messiter now left his 
perch, mounted his horse and came up on the 
opposite side of the thicket. The stream bottom 

8s 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

outside the willows was covered with rose bushes 
and buck brush about as high as the horse's belly, 
and this made it difficult for a horse to turn quickly. 
The bear was evidently wounded. All we could 
hear was his breathing. We approached the edge 
of the willows as close as we dared, and by shoot- 
ing at the sound of his breathing, kept his vicinity 
pretty warm. The bear watched his opportunity, 
crept to the edge of the thicket on my side and 
rushed out at me. I fired, but over-shot him, for 
he came on and was close to my horse's heels be- 
fore he could turn. I stood not on the order of my 
going, but went as fast as spurs could persuade the 
horse. In the scrimmage I lost my hat, and be- 
fore the horse could be controlled — for he was 
thoroughly frightened — and another shot deliv- 
ered, the bear had returned to his place of conceal- 
ment. Still guided by the sound of his breathing, 
we continued the bombardment and induced him 
to move. In the course of half an hour he crept 
along the bed of the little creek to the edge of the 
thicket near the point where I was stationed, and 
watching his opportunity charged out at me the 
second time. As he approached, I again made a 
shot in the chest with a solid ball, which dropped 
him in his tracks, and in such a fashion that I 
shouted, "I have got him I" but it was not so, for 

86 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

before I could load and give him a second shot, 
about fifteen feet off, he was up again and rushed 
for me. My horse barely got out of the reach of 
his claws before getting headway, though as a 
matter of precaution he was headed outward. We 
had now spent more than two hours about this bear 
and a blinding snowstorm had begun, which made 
It more difficult to hear or see him as he moved 
about in the thicket. He was evidently badly 
wounded in the lungs. For some time we kept up 
the bombardment, but accomplished nothing since 
we had to aim wholly by guess. A council was 
held then as to whether on foot we should boldly 
approach him or wait until morning, when we felt 
sure he would be found dead. We finally con- 
cluded that discretion was the better part of valor. 
Had we ventured in on foot and the bear possessed 
a little more vitality than anticipated, we should 
have stood no chances against such an infuriated 
monster in brush so thick as to prevent the effective 
use of our rifles. 

We now reluctantly withdrew, and reached 
camp, about two miles away, at half past five 
o'clock. We were wet from the driving snow- 
storm and disappointed that we had been obliged 
to leave the bear hide on the carcass. A hot sup- 
per revived our spirits, and after it, although the 

87 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

snow still fell, we gathered about a huge camp-fire 
and spent the time in discussing the events of the 
evening fight and remarking upon the size, fierce- 
ness and great vitality of the brute. The only 
bear met with in subsequent years which was the 
equal of this one in ferocity was the one killed 
in 1880 near the north fork of Stinking Water. 
This will be mentioned in its proper place. 

After a good night, which seemed more com- 
fortable by contrast with the storm without, and 
a warm breakfast, we mounted our horses toi go 
back to the bear. At the buffalo' carcass it was 
found that a bear and two cubs had visited it, and 
these we purposed to look for later. At the 
thicket everything seemed quiet. Messiter and I 
gave our horses to Fishel to hold, and pushed our 
way cautiously in the direction of the locality 
where the bear had been left behind the evening 
before. Every precaution was taken to guard 
against a surprise, but when we reached the middle 
of the thicket and carefully pushed aside the wil- 
lows, there, in a hastily improvised bed, the brute 
lay stiff and stark. He was one of the largest of 
grizzly bears, brownish in color, gradually turning 
grizzly or silver-tipped, and in two months more 
would have been called a silver-tip bear. Standing 
on all fours he would have been three and a half 

88 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

feet high at the shoulders and seven or seven and 
a half from the end of his nose to the end of his 
tail. Standing erect on his hind feet he would 
have measured eight feet high with his head level. 
He was in good order, but not fat, and would have 
weighed about six hundred pounds. Though not 
as well furred as he would have been later in the 
winter, his robe was a large one. After skinning 
the bear, Messiter and Fishel took up the trail of 
the mother and cubs, while I carried the skin to 
camp. The trail was followed until the sun had 
set, and the two hunters then returned. 

We remained in this camp until the i8th of 
September to allow the robes tO' dry. There were 
many deer about, and we killed enough for food. 

Our next camp was at Warm Spring Creek, 
about ten miles distant in an air line, but twelve or 
fifteen by the route we were obliged to follow. 
This is a bold running stream when it leaves the 
mountains, but in autumn it sinks at the crossing 
of the Carroll and Helena roads. The camp 
selected was in the canon where the creek leaves the 
mountains, a spot well sheltered from storms, with 
an abundance of dry wood and pure water. It was 
an ideal camping site, the more desirable as the 
time was approaching when snowstorms might be 
expected. The Judith Basin at this time was a 

89 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

great locality for game, especially for the white- 
tail and the mule deer. There were a few bands 
of elk and some large bears. The Basin is shut 
in by mountains, except to the northeast. On the 
northwest it is bordered by the Highwood Moun- 
tains, while the Snowy and the Judith Mountains 
help to close it on the south and southeast. 

During the autumn the Basin was frequented by 
large bands of buffalo, and the presence of these 
attracted to the hunting grounds friendly Indians 
from west of the mountains. For many years it 
was the practice of the Government to permit the 
Nez Perces, Bannocks and other friendly tribes to 
come through the mountains to hunt buffalo for 
their winter's meat. This season the Nez Perces 
had already come and gone, and the only Indians 
here were a band of Crows, and sixty-five lodges 
of Bannocks under Chief Tendoy, a firm and well 
tried friend of the whites. Tendoy and Washaki 
of the Shoshoni, saw far enough before them to 
realize that it was best for the Indians to be on 
terms of friendship with the whites. At this very 
time a band of Bannocks were on the war path, 
and for fear Tendoy's band might be disturbed 
by whites, the War Department had detailed 
Lieut. Jerome, ^^ of the Second Cavalry, and four 
men, to camp with these Indians as a protection. 

90 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

We remained for ten days at the camp on Warm 
Spring Creek without succeeding in seeing any 
grizzly bears. Along thq stream in the foothills 
deer, especially white-tails, were very abundant. 
My notes say that in one day thirty-two white-tails 
were seen. They were not wild, but quick shooting 
was required to get one when routed out of its bed. 
Still, it was not difficult to keep the camp in meat, 
although five healthy men living an outdoor life 
consumed a good deal. Besides this, we supplied 
Tendoy and his outfit with quite a number of deer. 

During this time, Messiter visited the Bannock 
camp, partly for the purpose of trading off one of 
his horses bought at Carroll, and incidentally to 
see Indian ways and to learn something about the 
hostile Bannocks, who were reported to be coming 
our way from the Lemhi reservation. He took 
with him my bear skin to be dressed by the Ban- 
nocks, who have not that fear of handling bear 
skins that the Crows have.^^ 

The next day Messiter returned mounted on a 
handsome, well-built and high-headed gray horse, 
which he had received in exchange for a Winches- 
ter rifle and $30, in the Crow camp. I wondered 
why these Indians had parted with such a fine 
horse, but was not long in learning the reason, for 
the next day, when we started out on a hunt, he 

91 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

bucked off his new owner, giving him a high fall, 
but as it happened without injury. It still remains 
a mystery why this horse had waited for a day to 
display his accomplishments, instead of doing so in 
the presence of his new and old masters, and before 
the bargain had been completed. An Indian will 
not keep a bucking horse long, and this horse 
proved to be very troublesome. Besides bucking 
off his rider he would constantly pull up his picket 
pin and be gone several days, being usually found 
tangled up in a thicket. He was never of any use. 

The Indians often visited our camp and ate with 
us. Sometimes we gave them one or two deer 
carcasses that hung up in the camp. I was inter- 
ested in their method of packing it. After remov- 
ing the head, all the bones were taken out of the 
carcass, leaving the meat attached to the hide. 
Then by rolling the meat in the hide, it was easily 
tied behind the saddle. The long experience of 
the savage taught the white man a new trick. 
Usually the white man lashes the stiff carcass, with 
all its projections of legs, head and horns, on his 
saddle, and then perhaps walks, leading his riding 
horse for miles. 

In hunting here where game was so abundant, I 
had an opportunity to try the efficacy of the express 
ball on these animals up to the size of the elk. 

92 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

Before leaving the East that year I had deter- 
mined to try the express principle with a long- 
range Sharps rifle, the finest made, which carried 
a .44-caliher ball in a shell holding 90 or 100 
grains of powder, the latter being introduced by 
means of a reloading tube about thirty inches in 
length. The ammunition furnished by the Sharps 
factory carried a 450 and 500 grain solid ball. It 
is, of course, understood that the gunpowder was 
black powder. 

British rifle makers have demonstrated the prin- 
ciple of the express bullet, Henry of Edinburgh 
having received the greatest credit on account of 
his exhaustive experiments on living animals. This 
maker was the inventor of the Henry system of 
cutting the rifling, which was adopted by the Eng- 
lish government for the Martini-Henry musket. 

The express system is the combination of a solid 
bullet with a hole of varying diameter running 
back from the point of the bullet about three- 
fourths of the ball's length. The diameter and 
length of the hole depends in some degree on the 
caliber and weight of the bullet. Such a bullet, 
with a heavy charge of powder behind it, giving 
a muzzle velocity of from 1,750 to 2,000 feet, 
constitutes an express bullet. A suitably designed 
ball with this velocity, after penetrating the skin of 

93 



Hunting at High 'Altitudes 

the animal, bursts into many small fragments wltlt 
sufficient momentum for these fragments to reach 
the opposite ribs of the animal and make a dozen 
perforations of the vitals, instead of a single large 
perforation, as in the case of a solid ball. The 
express bullet expends its momentum on the vitals 
In a space about equal to a circle with a six-inch 
diameter, whereas the solid ball makes a clean cut 
hole of the caliber of the bullet, which, passing 
wholly through the animal, expends much of Its 
energy after it has passed out. 

The bursting front end of the express bullet is 
supposed to be caused by the sudden compression 
of the air in the hole after the ball strikes the 
obstacle of the animal's flesh. A similar result 
appears to occur in shooting into water, as I have 
seen when It was necessary for me to kill trout in 
the water with one of these balls, fragments of the 
bullets being found in the dead fish. The sudden 
shock of the water close to the fish, of course, is 
partly responsible. At Henry's Lake a single shot 
turned up four trout. 

That year, before I left the East, I had designed 
and caused to be made by the Sharps Company 
an express bullet of 275 grains weight with an 
eighth inch diameter hole In the point, with 90 
or 95 grains of powder. This gave a proportion 

94 



'Memories of a Bear Hunter 

of powder to bullet of one to three, which was 
supposed to give the required velocity. A lighter 
bullet of that caliber would be so short as to lose 
its accuracy. 

From September 13 to October i, I made such 
experiments as I could with deer, killing no more 
than we could use. On white-tail and black-tail 
deer I made many experiments. When hit back of 
the shoulder, the animal's lungs and heart — ac- 
cording to the location of the bullet's entrance — 
would be perforated apparently by at least twenty 
fragments, most of which we found on the opposite 
side of the chest. Usually the butt of the bullet — 
considerably flattened out — was found next the 
skin on the other side. If the animal was hit 
further back over the paunch, the intestines would 
be cut in many places, and the butt of the bullet 
would be found under the skin on the opposite 
side, the fragments usually remaining in the vis- 
ceral cavity. If hit in either of these ways, the 
animal would stagger off and be found within 
twenty to fifty yards. They seldom fell in their 
tracks. Hit in other parts of the body, the shock 
appeared to be much greater than from a solid 
bullet, and as a rule, quite as disabling. I had no 
opportunity on this trip of testing this light bullet 
on elk, but I believe that if this animal was hit 

95 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

over the lungs, heart or smaller intestines, it would 
succumb within a short distance. 

The trajectory of this bullet is very flat. It 
shows a rise, as carefully tested, of seven inches in 
two hundred yards. It is accurate, for as often 
tested, careful shooting would place ten consecu- 
tive bullets within a twelve-inch bullseye. It was 
sighted for two hundred yards. For all distances 
within that range it was necessary to aim low, 
and for distances up to two hundred and fifty yards 
the mark was usually reached for a deer by aiming! 
at the top of the back. 

A few years subsequent to this, my hunting car- 
tridges were kindly tested at the Frankford Arsenal 
by Major Michaelis, of the Ordnance Depart- 
ment. I was then using the long range .45 caliber 
rifle made by the Sharps Rifle Company, but Dy 
putting a double patch around the .44 caliber 275 
grain express bullet, it shot as accurately from the 
.45 caliber rifle as from the .44. A few cartridges 
were sent to Major Michaelis with the 275 grain 
express ball and an equal number of .45 caliber 
express bullets of my own design weighing 340 
grains. Into all the shells no grains of powder 
were loaded, and the result as determined by the 
Government chronograph was that the .45 caliber 
bullet attained a muzzle velocity of 1,830 feet a 

96 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

second, while the 275 grain bullet had a muzzle 
velocity of 1,910 feet a second. 

My conclusion was that the lighter express bullet 
was not the best for game larger than deer. Later 
experience has convinced me that the 340 grain 
express ball is sufficient for all the large game of 
the continent For great beasts like the buffalo a 
heavy solid bullet is the thing, but during the sea- 
son of 1 88 1, after I had become familiar with the 
habits of the grizzly bear, I killed, using an express 
bullet with no grains of black powder, twenty- 
three of those bears, of which seventeen required 
only a single shot. 

On September 29 we moved camp westerly 
around the foothills of the mountains to the head 
of Cotton Wood Creek, about twelve miles above 
the only Indian trading post in the Judith Basin, 
owned by Reed & Bowles. This post is at present 
the site of the flourishing town of Lewiston. Major 
Reed had been the Government agent of the As- 
sinaboines and the Gros Ventres of the Prairie, 
with headquarters at Fort Belknap on Milk River 
In northern Montana. He possessed manly quali- 
ties and was perfectly fearless in the presence of 
danger. As an evidence of this trait it is related 
that at one of the gatherings of the Indians one 
of them shot Reed's dog without provocation. 

97 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Without hesitation Reed took up his rifle and 
killed the Indian. Of course, this made quite a 
disturbance, but they were prudent enough not to 
tackle Reed. The dispute was finally compromised 
by his paying the Indian's relatives a price in ponies 
or trade goods. The religion of the Indians that 
inhabited the Southern States demanded an "eye 
for an eye," and "a death for a death." The near- 
est relatives were religiously bound to shed the 
blood of the slayer of their family, and with the 
nomad tribes of the Northwest this revenge has 
become a matter of trade.*^ 

Bowles, the partner of Reed, had, just before 
our coming into the neighborhood, distinguished 
himself by a quarrel with the Indians. His wife 
was a woman from the Piegan Indians, whose 
agency was at Badger Creek,^^ in northwest Mon- 
tana. A few months before this date, a party of 
these people, some of whom were relatives of 
Bowles' wife, came into the Judith Basin on a 
hunting and proposed horse-stealing expedition. 
After loitering about the trading office for a time, 
they disappeared, and with them Bowles' woman. 
Suspecting that she had been persuaded to go- off 
by her relatives, Bowles mounted a good horse, 
and by riding all night, overtook the party just 
before they packed up for the next day's march. 

98 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

The result of the meeting was that Bowles killed 
two of the men, scattered the balance and brought 
his wife back with him, and when we reached the 
neighborhood she was living quietly at home. 

These instances are suggestive of acts of some of 
the pioneers of those days. Major Reed stood 
high as a fearless man, and the fact that he was 
swift to punish, even by death, an Indian that had 
deprived him of his property did not injure his 
standing in the community as a good citizen, and 
gave the Indians a wholesome respect for him. 

Our camp at the head of Cottonwood Creek, 
established October i, was delightful. Grizzly 
bears were fairly abundant, about as much so as 
anywhere on the frontier that I have been. White- 
tailed deer were extremely abundant. It was not 
uncommon for different members of the party to 
report having seen in one day twenty, thirty, forty 
or even fifty deer. Some of these reports may have 
been more or less exaggerated. In the immediate 
vicinity there was a large band of elk, then in the 
midst of the rutting season. The flesh of the bulls 
was useless, except as bear bait.*^ 

The numerous willow thickets which extended 
for miles down the stream from the foothills made 
splendid cover for the white-tailed deer and grizzly 
bears. Higher up on the hills the alternate gulches 

99 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

and intervening ridges, more or less timbered, are 
the resort of the black-tails. I have never found 
grizzly bears abundant in any portion of Montana 
or Wyoming to compare with any other game, not- 
withstanding the fact that the females bring forth 
from two to three cubs each year.*^ Two cubs are 
nearer the rule than the exception. Not more than 
ten of these animals were seen by the members of 
the party during the month spent at or near this 
camp, and some of these were seen more than once. 
The numerous willow thickets made it almost im- 
possible to kill them in daylight. When wounded 
they sought refuge in a neighboring thicket, and 
if followed, could always elude the hunter's ap- 
proach. In this neighborhood four of these bears 
were killed, two by Messiter and two by me. 

One I killed October 4 in the open and in day- 
light. He was discovered on an open flat near 
Cottonwood Creek, about two hundred yards dis- 
tant and feeding leisurely toward me, but in a 
quartering direction. Knowing that these bears 
cannot see distinctly unless looking up, and since 
he was too far off to risk a shot, I determined to 
boldly approach him in the open. Watching until 
his head was down feeding, I walked toward him 
as rapidly and noiselessly as I could until he raised 
his head, when I crouched down, to make another 

100 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

approach when he began feeding. I finally came 
to within forty or fifty yards of him without his 
discovering me, and watching when his side was 
exposed, delivered a deadly shot, which knocked 
him over. I fired two more shots to make sure of 
him. He was a large bear, his skin measuring, 
when tacked down, seven feet seven and a half 
inches. 

Messiter also killed a good-sized bear when 
alone and in daylight. The two other bears were 
killed at a bait established near the camp, one at 
9 o'clock and the other at 12 o'clock at night. 
Other elk baits were looked after at night, but 
somehow the bears always learned of our presence 
in time to retire. We had more or less stormy 
weather, blizzards of rain and then snow, which 
sometimes lasted for twelve hours. In the 
three or four inches of snow which some- 
times lay on the ground, we followed the bear 
tracks, but to no purpose. From the Bannock 
camp we heard, October 4, of a fight in the valley 
of the Yellowstone,^'*, which General Miles had 
had with a hostile band of Bannocks. He was said 
to have killed eight or ten, and to have dispersed 
the remainder. He felt sure that these people 
would now make for Tendoy's band, and joining 
them, would become respectable Indians. Of 

lOI 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

course, we saw nothing of them, but we did see 
moccasin tracks and pony tracks in the snow pass- 
ing down the stream with our camp, and this 
warned us to be cautious. About the middle of 
October one of the men sent with supplies and mail 
matter to the Forks of the Musselshell^^ reported 
that while he was there Indians had come down 
and stolen about twenty head of horses, his own 
among them. 

After a stay of a month at the Cottonwood camp 
we became more or less hopeless of success, and 
left the Forks of the Musselshell, intending to 
spend the remainder of the hunting season on the 
eastern slope of the Crazy Woman Mountain,*^ 
between the Musselshell and the Yellowstone 
Rivers.*^ 

Messiter's horse again bucked him off and gave 
him a hard fall, but did not injure him. We 
camped at Ross' Fork of the Judith River, along- 
side of a large freight outfit loaded with rifles and 
ammunition for Walter Cooper at Bozeman. The 
next night we went on and camped in Hopley's 
Hole, twelve miles beyond the Judith Gap on the 
way to the Forks of the Musselshell. The freight 
outfit of six or seven teams camped at the springs 
near the Gap. 

Just after bedtime a band of Indians made a 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

dash for the freighters' horses. By good luck the 
teamsters heard the noise in time, jumped out of 
their blankets, and by a rapid fusillade drove the 
Indians off before any horses were taken. For- 
tunately our insignificant bunch of horses was no 
temptation to these discriminating savages.*^ 

We reached the Forks of the Musselshell on 
November 2, and camped in Gordon's cabin, two 
miles above the post-office. Here we stayed for 
several days reading our accumulated mail and 
newspapers, and on the 6th left camp for a hunt 
between this point and the Yellowstone, on the 
heads of Sweetgrass and Big Timber Creeks. 

On November 8 we camped at Porcupine Butte, 
and on the 9th on the Big Timber. As the wagon 
and outfit passed on the road at the foot of the 
mountains, Messiter and I scouted along the foot- 
hills above, looking out for game. We saw white- 
tails and antelope in considerable numbers, but no 
sign of bears. We reached Big Timber Creek 
again, eight or nine miles above the point our camp 
was supposed to be located. Meantime it had 
clouded up, and before long began to snow, with 
a raw northwest wind. We moved down toward 
our camp, hoping to reach it before dark, but 
night fell before any signs of camp could be seen, 
and with the darkness the wind and the snow in- 

103 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

creased. We were without overcoats, and our 
buckskin clothing had already become wet from the 
melting snow. We traveled for an hour and a 
half after dark, and still saw no camp-fire, and our 
occasional stops to see if signal guns might be 
heard were fruitless. We had just about deter- 
mined to seek some sheltered place where we might 
build a fire and spend the night as best we could, 
when we heard from behind us three distinct dis- 
charges of firearms. The signals were answered 
and camp was finally reached by riding about two 
miles back. We had passed it within three-quarters 
of a mile, but since it was behind an intervening 
hill, we had failed to hear the signal guns. Around 
a cheerful camp-fire we were soon warm and dry, 
but it did not require a hot supper to make us 
happy at having reached a haven where we were 
sheltered from storms of winter, and having 
avoided a night of great discomfort exposed tO' the 
blizzard then raging. How comfortable and luxu- 
rious that tent appeared, with the storm howling 
without! No wonder the tired sportsmen slept 
without dreams. 

The following morning was bright and pleasant 
and the sun was warm and melted the snow. We 
spent the loth, nth and 12th of November recon- 
noitering the mountains, but found the prospect for 

104 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

game so disappointing that Messiter and I deter- 
mined not to hunt. 

November 13 we moved camp to the Yellow- 
stone. Messiter determined to take the stage next 
morning for Bismarck, and I to go into winter 
quarters at Bozeman. We had no difficulty in 
agreeing on the disposition of the outfit, and I took 
the three men and all the animals to Bozeman, 
where the party was to break up. Messiter left on 
the Bozeman and Bismarck stage, and I started 
with the men for Bozeman, covering the distance 
in three days, and reached there on the i6th. The 
17th of November the party was disbanded. 



los 



1879 

I left Bozeman in the early spring, intending to 
make a bear hunt in the Crazy Woman Mountains. 
Nelson Catlin was my packer. We had three pack 
animals. We were provided with 39x9 wall tent 
with a small box-shaped sheet-iron stove to go 
inside the tent. The day was bright and cheerful, 
and we passed through Bridger's Canon, up Bridg- 
er's Creek, toward the Bridger Pass. William 
Martin, whom we met and who had just come over 
the pass, reported it impassable, unless the snow 
should be sufficiently hard to bear up the pack ani- 
mals. I determined to make an early start, so as 
to pass over the deep snowdrift before the sun 
should thaw the crust. We did not get started 
until 8 o'clock, and were soon in trouble with the 
snow. Two pack animals went down at the first 
ravine that we crossed and we were obliged to un- 
pack them. Finally we determined not to attempt 
any other snowdrifts, but to ascend the mountains 
on the east of the pass, which appeared free from 
snow, and to try to go down some bare ridge on 
to Brackett Creek, a fork of Shield's River. 

106 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

These bare mountains were about a thousand 
feet above the pass, and were steep, making the 
climb difficult for the pack animals as well as for 
ourselves. It was not until 12 o'clock that we 
reached the summit. About half way up, a pack 
on one of the horses became loose, and while we 
tried to tighten it, the horse lost his footing and 
rolled down the mountainside, over and over, 
finally stopping just on the edge of a snow bank. 
Had he gone a little further and got on the snow 
bank, he would no doubt have rolled down a 
steeper part of the mountain four or five hundred 
feet, and been killed. As it was, he did not after- 
ward appear at all hurt or sore. We were on top 
of the mountain where the aneroid showed an 
elevation of 7,300 feet. 

At 3 o'clock we started down, but found it im- 
possible to reach Brackett Creek, as we had hoped, 
because of the depth of the snow. We therefore 
came down to a point on the pass about two miles 
from where we had left it, trusting to fortune to 
get out on to Brackett Creek. There we camped 
on the headwaters of Brackett Creek, but in a place 
where there was little grass for the animals, but 
plenty of wood and water. Here the barometer 
showed 5,900 feet, which is about the level of 
Bridger Pass. The exertions of the day were very 

107 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

fatiguing to animals and men. I walked most of 
the way up the mountain, leading my saddle ani- 
mal, and all the way down, going ahead of my 
mare and breaking a road through deep snow near 
the foot of the mountain. 

Next morning Catlin went out early, to learn, if 
possible, something about the road, and when he 
returned reported that it would be very difficult to 
get out of the pass on to Brackett Creek, Finally, 
however, after careful choice of a way, we reached 
the stream without trouble and were now on dry 
ground and out of the snow. We camped on a 
side hill only a little further on, where there was 
wood and water and good shelter from storms. I 
had intended to hunt in the evening, but when the 
time came found that the horses had started away 
from camp down into the valley, and it took some 
time to overtake and bring them back. An all- 
day hunt on April 5 showed no game, and only a 
little sign of deer, but the following day I took 
a walk in the evening and discovered a band of 
twenty-five or thirty mountain sheep, which I en- 
deavored to approach. After going a long way 
round, we approached them within three hundred 
yards, but could not get nearer without being seen 
or winded. I fired the express ball at them at that 
distance, but apparently without result. Catlin, 

108 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

who followed the sheep as they hurried up the 
mountain, firedi two more shots and knocked down 
an animal, but failed to secure it. 

This was Sunday, and the anniversary of the 
Battle of Shiloh, in 1862. The following morn- 
ing I set out to look for mountain sheep, and going 
up a small ridge just below the camp saw a small 
band of sheep on the mountain, which, however, 
saw us at the same time and made off. The climb 
was a long one, but it was not so steep but we could 
ride our horses to the top, which the aneroid 
showed to be 1,000 feet higher than the camp. No 
sheep were seen on the top of the mountain, but 
by working along and looking down into the next 
ravine, we discovered another band of sheep feed- 
ing about a mile away. To get around the head 
of the gulch to the ridge they were feeding on 
proved impossible because of snowdrifts, and we 
were therefore obliged to make a long circuit, de- 
scending to a level lower than that of the camp. 
The wind was baffling and uncertain, and I was 
somewhat afraid that they might scent us and go 
off. As we climbed the backbone of a ridge we 
came upon the fresh tracks of a bear going down. 

After a hard climb we got near the sheep, but 
meanwhile they had fled down the ridge and we 
came upon them unexpectedly. They scampered 

109 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

off without giving us a good chance, but stopped at 
175 or 200 yards distant. We both fired hastily, 
and probably overshot; at all events, we touched 
nothing. They ran down the mountain into a 
ravine to the left and then up on the other side. 
I suggested to Catlin, who had better and younger 
legs than I, to go ahead up the ridge and try to 
head them off. He did so, but after an hour re- 
turned unsuccessful. He reported having stalked 
a grizzly, which had run down the same ravine 
with the sheep. He had gone into a pine forest on 
the other side of the ravine, where it was futile to 
follow. 

After a weary tramp without success, we reached 
camp about 4 .'30 P. M., tired and hungry and with 
only a mountain grouse to show for the day's hard 
work. On the way we passed the carcasses of two 
dead steers, untouched by bears ; good evidence that 
as yet these animals had not come down into the 
valley. At camp we found the barometer had 
fallen three and a half tenths, promising stormy 
weather. It had registered in that camp from 
23.75 ^^ 24.15. Previous to this afternoon it had 
been quite steady at from 24.10 to 24.15. 

Most of the night was stormy; the wind blew 
hard, with many showers of rain. In the morn- 
ing we could see snow on the mountains toi the 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

north and to the south. It was cool and some ice 
had formed In the water buckets. The wind was 
blowing hard and cold, and I determined not to 
move camp this day. About i o'clock I set out to 
look for sheep on a high tableland that we had not 
hunted hitherto. Just before ascending the moun- 
tain, I saw what I supposed to be a band of sheep 
just on the path that I had picked out to follow 
to the summit. Instead of going up further, I kept 
on down the valley until out of their sight, and 
then turned up and climbed the mountain until I 
was above them, and by a long and weary tramp 
approached them. I at length discovered them 
lying down below me, about a hundred and fifty 
yards distant on the mountainside, but horizontally 
only about a hundred and twenty yards. I shot at 
a ewe and broke her hindleg, and the others not 
knowing the direction whence the danger came, ran 
directly up the mountain toward me. As I was 
preparing to use the double triggers, the rifle went 
off accidentally, and the ball passed over the sheep, 
so I lost a fine chance to kill another. I then hur- 
ried down the mountain at breakneck speed, and 
shot the wounded animal, which proved to be an 
antelope, as I had discovered when the band ran 
toward me. I took a ham and went to the gulch, 
where we had previously found the sheep and 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

the bear, and there awaited Catlin's return. 
When he came he reported a band of antelope and 
one of elk, but too far off to be reached that day. 

The next day we moved down to Martin & 
Myer's camp, at the forks of Twenty-five Yard 
Creek, on Shield's River, and about twenty miles 
from the mouth of the river where it enters the 
Yellowstone River. The next day Catlin went 
down for grain for the horses, and I reconnoitered 
as far as the foot of the Crazy Mountains to 
select a permanent camp. These foothills were 
understood to be one of the best points in Montana 
for bear. They are not high and are quite broken. 
There are good camping places. 

Catlin returned the following day, and on April 
1 2 we started for the foot of the Crazy Mountains 
to establish a camp. I told Catlin the direction in 
which I wished to go, and riding off to one side 
before long found first one elk and then four 
others, at which I fired a few shots; but the dis- 
tance was great, and I did no damage. Not long 
afterward I met Catlin coming back in search of 
something that had dropped off the pack. He had 
seen something go over the ridge which he sup- 
posed was a mounted Indian. I suggested that 
the object was an antelope or an elk, but he was 
somewhat alarmed. After a circuit of three- 

112 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

fourths of a mile, we cautiously approached the 
place where the elk had been. Three antelope 
stood officiously near that point and seemed to 
dare us to fire at them, but we were in search of 
larger game. 

Some of the elk had moved down the ridge and 
they had scattered out, but we discovered it in time 
not to alarm them, and crept up to within a hun- 
dred and fifty yards. Each selecting his animal, 
we fired. Mine fell, but Catlin overshot, and the 
noise started them running. We ran down the 
mountain, and each got another shot at a hundred 
and fifty yards, mine again falling by a shot 
through the shoulder, and Catlin missing. Look- 
ing across the valley of a small creek, a band of 
at least fifty elk that our shots had alarmed 
streamed out of the valley, and a mile further on, 
over near the base of the mountain, was a still 
larger band of seventy or eighty. These joined 
the others, and all went off. I had never before 
seen so many elk, and those I saw would ordinarily 
be estimated as three or four hundred, but my esti- 
mate is based on a count of portions of the herd. 

On examining our game, we found that both 
were cows, and neither fat. They were shot with 
275-grain hollow bullets, with a hole one-sixteenth 
of an inch in diameter. The first one was shot 

"3 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

through the back part of the paunch, but I could 
not find the ball. When the shot struck her she 
dropped, rose again and soon fell and was dead 
when we reached her. The second was shot 
through both shoulders, the ball lodging against 
the skin on the opposite side, but going through the 
ribs and shoulders, the ball had flown to pieces and 
the butt, much marked, went through the opposite 
shoulder. This ball was found and weighed 250 
grains. Both elk were dressed, for we intended to 
make bear bait of portions of them. 

Before this we had found the sign of a large 
bear. It was after sundown when we returned to 
camp, and we were then obliged to pitch the tent 
and get the supper. On our way out to investigate 
the supposed Indian mystery I killed a big antelope 
at one hundred and fifty yards with a 275-grain 
hollow ball, dropping him in his tracks shot 
through the shoulders high up. Catlin was now 
satisfied that the supposed horsemen had been elk. 
It is usually well to investigate all such supposed 
mysteries, and, if possible, to satisfy the persons 
who discover them, and thus to stop the constant 
alarms likely to follow.*^ 

Two days later we moved camp about two miles 
further south and higher up the mountain, on the 
little stream where wood and water were abundant 

114 



'Memories of a Bear Hunter 

and convenient and the camp well sheltered from 
the wind. Above camp we established a bear bait, 
leaving there two carcasses of elk, killed not 
long before. We saw some deer and elk, and 
reached camp just in time to escape a storm which 
continued during the night, the rain finally turning 
into snow when the wind shifted to the northwest. 
The ground was white with snow next morning. 
Catlin reported that two white-tail deer were feed- 
ing within a hundred yards of the tent when he got 
up. He called mc, asking me to get them. I 
slipped a cartridge into the rifle, stepped out into 
the snow, and kneeling down, pulled the trigger. 
In justice to myself I may say that the deer was 
facing me, and to my disappointment, instead of 
dropping in his tracks, he raised his tail, and with, 
his companion bounded away out of sight. After 
breakfast I hunted around the mountains to the 
south, and discovered two bull elk lying on a hill- 
side out of reach of the wind, which was blowing 
hard from the northwest. After some maneuver- 
ing I crept up to what I supposed was 150 yards. 
I fired at one of them lying down, and the two 
sprang up. Another shot at the same animal stand- 
ing broadside failed to bring it down, and then the 
elk trotted over the hill into a ravine. I followed 
rapidly, thinking they must have stopped, and sure 

"S 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

enough, on reaching the brow of the little hill, 
there the two were. One stood with his tail toward 
me, and the other broadside on, but with his rump 
behind the head of the other. Pulling the trigger 
at the one standing broadside on, the other one 
fell, having been hit a raking shot in the loins and 
being broken down. I went up to him and killed 
him with two shots, one with the 275, and the 
other with the 360-grain ball. The first two shots 
had dropped successively and had broken the leg 
in two places, the lower part of the thigh and 
below the knee. The shot in the thigh had caused 
a bad wound. A trial shot with the 360-grain ball 
made a hole on entering the cavity of three inches 
diameter. The 275-grain ball would have killed 
him as quickly, as it badly shattered the breast 
bone and reached the heart. I took out the tender- 
loins and returned to camp for dinner. The wind 
was very cold, and I remained in camp during the 
evening and loaded about eighty rifle shells. The 
bull elk killed the day before had only recently 
dropped his horns, as had his companion. Three 
young bulls that I had seen lately several times had 
not dropped their horns. ^^ I concluded from this 
that April 15 was about the time when they lose 
them. 

The following day I hunted around the base of 
116 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

the mountains to the north to look for game and 
for another camp, for the signs called for it. In 
the snow I discovered one large bear track, within 
a mile and a half from camp. This was the third 
bear track we had seen, and I was becoming dis- 
couraged, as there was no other sign of their being 
here. Our elk baits still remained untouched. 

I hunted around the mountain for six or seven 
miles and passed over a country well adapted to 
game, especially white-tail deer, but all I saw was 
one band of black-tails and one of antelope. The 
large band of elk seemed to have left the country 
I wished to hunt in ; still I felt that we might find 
them still further south, on the south side of the 
mountain, where the grass was greener. On the 
north and northeast sides of the mountain the snow 
drifts were much deeper and showed the lack of 
sun. The wind blew so hard that it was tiresome 
to ride against it. 

After dinner the next day we went south around 
the foot of the mountain for four miles. We saw 
two white-tail deer lying on a hillside sunning 
themselves, and Catlin, crawling up to within a 
hundred yards of them, fired. Much to his dis- 
gust, he missed, and the deer bounded away over 
the next hill with flags flying. Further along, we 
saw elk; first three lying high up on the mountain 

117 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

on our left, probably the young bulls seen several 
times, and then climbing up high on the mountain 
to approach them, I discovered two large bands of 
elk feeding; no doubt the ones seen a few days 
before. They were about three miles to the south 
and on the bench near Rock Creek. I regretted 
that we had not moved the day before, so that we 
might get around them and start them up the 
valley, so as to have them near us when we moved 
camp further up the mountains to the north. 

Going about a mile further around the moun- 
tain, we discovered a fine old ram sunning himself 
about half way to the top. We passed him with- 
out attracting his attention, got under cover, and 
then ascended the mountain by way of a ravine in 
order to get the wind on him and to approach him 
from behind rising ground. About the time I dis- 
mounted and prepared to stalk him, I discovered 
the remainder of the band, six or eight sheep, a 
little higher up, but in full view of us. They had 
seen us, and got up and ran off. I hurried toward 
the old ram, in the hope that he would not dis- 
cover this movement of the others, but getting to 
within two hundred yards of him, found he also 
was starting up the mountain. I gave the band a 
shot at three hundred yards, but it fell short, and 
then I fired at the ram, but without effect. 

ii8 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

It was now 3 o'clock, and we returned toward 
camp. Some time before we reached it, we dis- 
covered a band of elk on the trail, but apparently 
working back toward camp, as if something had 
alarmed them. Following, we found that they had 
followed our trail toward camp, and we supposed 
that they would stop and begin to feed near camp ; 
but before long we saw the band rapidly climbing 
the mountains, something had greatly frightened 
them — perhaps a bear. At all events, no bear had 
disturbed our bait, and it seemed that bears must 
be scarce here. 

Early on this day I had an odd experience with 
a buck antelope. I first shot at him from 250 
yards, and supposing that I had hit him, we went 
to see. Then I discovered him 225 or 250 yards 
away, facing us. I took deliberate aim for 250 
yards, making allowance for the wind that was 
blowing. When the ball reached him, the hair 
flew from his back, and he fell, apparently dead. 
Soon he began to kick and flop and pitch about 
like a rabbit, and it became apparent that he was 
merely grazed, the ball probably having plowed 
along his backbone. The more he kicked the live- 
lier he became, until he got to his feet, and at every 
jump he made, he grew better, until at length he 
trotted and galloped off as if nothing had hap- 

119 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

peiied, and was soon snorting at me from a neigh- 
boring hill, but out of rifle shot. 

On the next day, while we were hunting, looking 
for elk and mountain sheep, we discovered with the 
glasses what we supposed was a band of elk feed- 
ing on a steep mountainside. As we attempted to 
approach them, a buck antelope with beautiful 
horns got up within fifty yards of us on a hillside 
and stamped defiance at us while he erected his 
mane. We approached within thirty yards before 
he would trot off. Had we not been after larger 
game, the antelope would not have been so bold. 
We left him staring at us with broadside exposed 
a hundred yards off. How did he know we were 
after larger game and did not wish to bother with 
him? This often happens when one has plenty of 
meat, but once get out of meat, and then see how 
scarce and wild game can become. 

When we were within five hundreds yards of 
the game already spoken of, creeping from behind 
a little ridge, we discovered that instead of being 
elk, these were mountain sheep. Their light color 
ought to have told us this before, but we took them 
for a band of elk seen yesterday. 

The sheep were in full view, and there was no 
way of approaching them. We could only wait 
lor them to feed along the mountainside, and dis- 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

appear over a small bench. When they had done 
this, after an hour's wait, we slipped down as 
quickly as possible into a deep ravine. Many of 
the sheep were still in sight, but they failed to 
detect us. A little later the wind was blowing 
hard, and I feared lest our scent should be talcen 
up tOi them, as it swept up the mountain. Never- 
theless we kept on. When we reached the part of 
the bench where we had seen some, all had van- 
ished, and I concluded that they had winded us and 
had run up the mountain. However, there was 
one spot where they might be lying down. We 
approached the intervening rise, but not with great 
caution, until Catlin caught sight of a horn and 
signalled me. I rose and shot at a large ram at 
the other side of the rise, but only fifty yards away. 
There was a tuft of grass between us, but I sup- 
posed I had certainly killed him. The sheep van- 
ished so quickly that Catlin did not get a shot, and 
the whole band circled around to our right, cross- 
ing the path by which we had come up the moun- 
tain. During this time each one of us gave them 
a shot, and then ran rapidly back to shoot again. 
The band came into view about two hundred yards 
off, and we bored three shots apiece into them, 
wounding two at least and a three-year-old ram, 
which could not follow the band. Meantime the 

121 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

sheep had descended the gulch and were slowly 
climbing the mountain on the other side. We now 
started back to pick up the killed and wounded, 
thinking there must be some after fifteen or twenty 
shots fired. Going back to near the point where 
we started them, I observed an old ram peering 
at me over a ledge of rock. He was about a hun- 
dred yards up the mountain and showed only his 
head and neck. I fired at him, and supposed that 
I dropped him, so rapidly did his head disappear. 
I climbed higher toward him, and again he showed 
his whole body, but not long enough for a shot. I 
called to Catlin, who was on the other side of this 
ledge of rock to look out, as I was sure the ram 
would almost run over him. Soon I heard three 
shots, and presently saw Catlin triumphantly points 
ing at the ram and declaring that he had broken 
his legs. At last Catlin killed the ram, and the 
shots found in his body showed that he was the 
one that I had shot at first. He could have escaped 
in a dozen diiferent directions, but declined to do 
so; insisting on following his band, he ran the 
gauntlet of our rifles. The ram was the largest 
that I had yet seen. Its measurements were as 
follows: Length of body, from tip of nose to 
root of tail, 60 inches; height at shoulder, 42 
Inches; circumference of chest, 52 inches; length 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

of horn on curve, 28^/^ inches; circumference at 
base, 16 inches; circumference at half its length, 
15 inches; spread of horns from tip to tip, 21 
inches. The horns made a few inches more than 
one turn, and we estimated that he would weigh 
nearly 400 pounds. 

On the way down the hill to get the horses, 
Catlin pointed out a groundhog sitting at the root 
of a tree about thirty yards distant. Being desir- 
ous to see if he resembled the eastern animal, I 
shot him. Going to pick him up, I discovered just 
below me the other wounded ram. He was a 
three-year-old, with a perfect set of horns, not 
battered, as in the old one. 

The next day Catlin went to Martin & Myer's 
ranch and a storm threatened all day. The next 
day it was raining, turning to snow at night, and 
on the morning of April 21, ten or twelve inches 
of snow lay on the ground. It was soft and melt- 
ing, and ceased about midday. The following 
day we set out to look for signs along the base of 
the mountains, and found two bear trails coming 
down. One of them led to an elk bait, which I 
determined to watch for the bear, since his tracks 
showed him to be a large one. Unfortunately, the 
bait was in the open prairie, without any cover 
near it. If I watched on the ground near enough 

123 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

to the bait to see to shoot after night, the bear 
would smell me, while, if I remained out of gun- 
shot, I could not creep up to him because of the 
noise made by the frozen snow, so that night after 
dinner I rode over to the bait, picketing old Jim, 
the pack horse, at a little distance and going to a 
point within a hundred yards of the bait, where I 
could command a view of all approaches. I 
watched until dark, but saw no sign of him, and 
returned to camp. 

Two days later we moved camp to one of the 
springs of Elk Creek, about two miles from the 
base of the mountains. The spot should be a good 
one for game, for it was a park in the mountain 
about five miles in circumference. On the way 
there we saw seven or eight bull elk, one of which 
I tried to shoot at, but the rifle was unloaded. I 
saw some large bands of antelope, and one band 
of white-tail deer. 

While riding next day, I witnessed the extraor- 
dinary sight of a sickle-billed curlew chasing a 
large eagle. Other summer birds were beginning 
to appear — larks, flickers, bluebirds and others. 
For a week past I had heard the sandhill cranes 
and geese passing over. Although there was 
little or no snow on the prairie, still in the narrow 
valleys, which were shadowed by the hills, the 

124 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

southern foothills were covered with snow and 
with deep drifts, some of which were frozen hard 
enough to bear a horse. This was on the north 
fork of Shield's River. Across the river from our 
camp was a beautiful park, watered by clear 
streams, with many willow and quaking aspen 
thickets along their course, which once must have 
been alive with white-tailed deer. Now not one 
was to be seen, nor were there any elk In sight. All 
of them seemed to have followed the large bands 
further south.^^ 

On April 27, while going out to look after the 
horses, I saw a band of fifteen or twenty elk feed- 
ing on the hillside of Elk Creek. After watching 
them for an hour through the glasses — for they 
were two and a half or three miles away — they 
lay down. To reach them I made a circuit of per- 
haps four miles to get to windward of them, and 
then climbing the hill, got close to them. How- 
ever, I did not find them where I had expected, and 
working along down the hill, disturbed a band of 
black-tail deer, which ran off in the direction of the 
elk and started them. They went off slowly, and 
running to the top of a hill, I got a shot at them, 
just before they plunged down the side of the 
mountain. One of them reared, and acted as if 
fatally wounded, but managed to go off with the 

125 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

band. They disappeared in a creek bottom a mile 
off, and as I did not see them come out of it, I went 
to my mare, and making another circuit, climbed 
the mountain, and when I looked over, discovered 
three bands on the opposite side of the valley, some 
lying down and some feeding. As It was late, I 
determined to return to camp and perhaps try for 
them to-morrow. On my way back I killed three 
antelope. 

About 9 o'clock the next morning, I set out to 
find the elk, and after a time discovered what I 
supposed to be four black-tails a long way off on 
the mountain bordering Elk Creek on the south. I 
climbed the mountain to the windward and looked, 
but seeing nothing across the valley, crept on down, 
after the black-tails. When I had come close to 
them, I found they were not black-tails, but elk, but 
near them was the band of ten or twelve black-tails 
that I had seen a few days before. I was obliged 
to creep just above and even among the deer to get 
a shot at the elk, which lay just beyond. One of 
them, lying down broadside about 125 yards 
distant, was shot at. I made allowance for a strong 
wind, but the light ball drifted and struck it in the 
neck, killing it at once. I then turned my atten- 
tion to the band of black-tails about 200 yards 
down the mountain, but failed tO' get one. 

126 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

Among the elk that I saw on the 27th was a 
young bull that had not yet dropped his horns. He 
seemed to be three or four years old. The follow- 
ing day I spent in camp, experimenting with car- 
tridges, to discover the effect, If any, of a lubricant 
wad melting and being mixed with the powder, but 
I could reach no definite conclusion. The next day, 
while out looking about, I rode up on a ridge and 
saw three deer approaching, feeding. I dis- 
mounted, and although my mare was in plain sight, 
they came up within a hundred yards of the horse 
before seeing her. This shows that deer are not 
always as vigilant and watchful as they have the 
credit of being.^^ 

On May i , Catlin got back, and the day after, 
August Gottschalk rode up. He had come from 
his ranch near Bozeman to hunt with me, and 
unable to find my camp, had camped about a mile 
and a half to the south. After dinner we went out 
to look the land over, and to the south saw one 
band of elk and some other game. We spent some 
time trying to get within good rifle shot, but at 
last they winded us and went off to the higher 
benches. We might have had a long shot at them, 
but the wind was blowing fiercely, and we wished 
to make a sure kill, for my friend wanted to take 
some meat home with him. The next morning It 

127 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

was storming, with about two inches of snow on 
the ground, but before long it cleared up and I 
went over to Gottschalk's camp to make a day's 
hunt to the south. We found no bear, but saw 
one fresh track near our own camp. From one of 
the high points, we had a fine view of the country 
below, and so discovered two hundred elk feeding 
in different bands. Determining to make a circuit 
of about five miles in order to get south of the elk 
and drive them toward our camp, we covered a wide 
sweep of country, which we examined for bear or 
bear sign, but without encouragement. There were 
many white-tail deer and antelope. At length we 
approached the southernmost band of elk under 
good cover, and got within a hundred and fifty 
yards of them. There were about fifty of them, 
and they were lying down. Gottschalk fired before 
I was ready, and all my shots were at the band 
while it was running. After firing three shots 
apiece, we discovered that our horses had stam- 
peded as well as the elk, and before getting back 
to the elk, they had all disappeared. Several were 
going off wounded, however, and Gottschalk fol- 
lowed them. I heard a shot at one of the wounded 
and ran around a butte, hoping to meet a band 
going south. Those that I saw after were going 
down the stream, but about one mile, away I saw a 

128 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

band of a hundred and twenty-five coming toward 
me, evidently intending to go south around the 
point of the mountain. This we wished tO' prevent. 
When the elk discovered me, they turned back and 
bent their course to the northwest. 

Going toward camp, I found a small band of 
elk, and got within easy rifle shot and shot a 
young bull with a 102-386 cartridge. He was 
badly wounded, being shot through the thigh. I 
then fired at another elk a hundred and fifty yards 
off and wounded it, and away went the balance to 
the northwest. The bull was badly wounded, and 
soon fell, and I went after the wounded one which 
fell in the brush near our own camp. When I 
went back to the bull, he was dead. Just then my 
friend hove in sight, having killed the elk he was 
after by a second shot. He reported that one of 
my 386-grain balls with a hole in the point %4 of 
an inch in diameter, which struck the elk just over 
the hip to the right of the backbone, passed under 
the ribs and out of the hollow, and had been 
stopped by the skin in front. He cut out the ball, 
which was mushroomed. I do' not think that it 
lost any Weight in splintering, and it evidently had 
not sufficient velocity to give the best results. This 
ball was a 406-grain bullet, and the hole was three- 
fourths of an inch deep. After hanging up the 

129 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

hindquarters, we returned to camp, reaching it 
just after sundown. Ellc, antelope and white-tail 
deer were exceedingly abundant. Talking over the 
subject of bears with Gottschalk, he expressed the 
opinion that they had not yet left their winter 
quarters, and as he was a good hunter, that opinion 
should be worth something. 

We remained here for some days longer, and 
Gottschalk went home May 5. I killed what 
game was needed for food, making some interest- 
ing experiments as to the efficiency of the hollow 
ball. On one occasion when looking for elk, we 
got to a point from which we should have seen 
them, and found that they had mysteriously dis- 
appeared. Just then two white-tail deer came 
toward us along a trail, and approached us very 
closely. We could not do anything for fear of 
alarming the elk, knowing that if the deer ran off 
the elk would see them and start too. The leading 
deer, a doe, came up within twenty yards of us 
and could not make us out until she had got around 
to windward, when she raised her tail and ran 
swiftly back. This soon showed us where the elk 
were in a coulee very near us, for they started off. 
Wc ran rapidly up the ridge to meet them at the 
point where we supposed they would cross, but they 
were too' smart for us. and went off in an opposite 

130 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

direction. The bull elk at this time were just 
growing their horns. 

A few days later, I went out with Catlin and 
had some amusement in watching him while he 
went off after a band of elk. They smelled him 
before he got anywhere near them, and went off; 
but he was not aware of that and spent a long time 
crawling about and peeping up to try and find the 
game. 

At last, at 5 o'clock, I started for camp, but 
before I had mounted my horse my eye caught a 
dark moving object on the south side of the moun- 
tain. It was not a deer, nor an elk, and when I 
used the glasses it was evident that it was a grizzly, 
and presently I made out a second. I watched for 
a few moments to see what they were likely to do, 
and saw that they were moving down toward the 
elk baits that had been laid out when we camped 
out on this creek several weeks ago. I mounted 
old Jim and set out down the mountain. Not 
daring to go directly down, lest I should be seen, I 
passed out of their sight and down a valley and 
through a caiion. When I passed out of it, I dis- 
covered the two bears on the opposite side of a 
deep gorge, and about five hundred yards off. To 
keep from being seen, I was obliged to go straight 
down to the creek bed, for which they headed, and 

131 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

I wanted to get there before they did. I had the 
wind of them, and went as fast and with as little 
noise as possible to a point opposite to where I 
thought they should be intercepted, and there I tied 
my horse, climbed up the opposite side of the steep 
bench and cautiously looked around. I soon saw 
that they were ahead of me, and as there was much 
brush on the stream below, I began to despair of 
getting a shot. Going on a hundred yards further, 
heard a noise which I thought might be made by a 
bear just over a little rise of ground. Creeping up 
to the brow of this rise and peering over, I saw 
a good-sized grizzly coming up the hill toward 
me. I dropped down on the ground, determined 
to fire at the first good opportunity. Looking 
down the hill, I saw behind the first bear another 
smaller one, and noticed that the old one now and 
then sat up and called to the cub to hurry it along. 
Something down the creek had evidently alarmed 
her. I determined to await her approach where I 
was, but felt that it was necessary to make a sure 
shot, as there is always fight in an old bear when 
her young are in danger. At the moment, I could 
not sight at her from my position, for she was 
behind a stump. Presently she started up the hill 
again in front of me, occasionally nipping off buds 
as she walked, but always concealed by some ob- 

132 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

stack. Seeing a large pine tree just between us, I 
determined to get a little closer, and noiselessly and 
rapidly gained the cover of a tree without attract- 
ing the old one's attention. The cub, however, 
stopped, and would not come on. This tree was 
within forty yards of the old one, and as I peered 
out ready to shoot, I discovered the bear sitting up 
and looking back, after her cub. I brought my 
rifle to my shoulder in an instant, took deliberate 
aim at her chest and pulled. Just as I did so, 
however, the bear turned her right side slightly 
toward me. She fell with the ball near or through 
her heart. Quickly loading, I turned my attention 
to the cub, which was now sitting up trying to find 
out what had happened. I pulled on him, the ball 
going through the shoulders high up and breaking 
the backbone. Two grizzlies in two shots I 
thought was pretty good luck. I loaded again with 
a light ball in case any fresh shooting should be re- 
quired, but both animals soon lay still. I then went 
back to my horse, determined to dress the animals 
and return to-morrow with Catlin to skin them. 
On going to my horse, however, I was glad to see 
Catlin not far off coming toward me. 

When he came up, he said that he had discov- 
ered the bears and determined to be sure as to what 
they were, had crept up within a hundred yards of 

133 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

them and immediately came back to tell me, so that 
1 could kill them. I thanked him, but put a some- 
what different construction on his motives, as he 
had several times declared that he "had never lost 
any bears." 

The next morning, while we were skinning the 
bears, a ruffed grouse began to drum, and this 
suggested the question so often asked as to how 
the sound was produced. 

After we had finished the work of skinning the 
bears, a rain squall came up and we went for 
shelter to some pine trees near some brush, when 
presently the grouse sounded his drum on a dead 
pine log about thirty yards distant and partially 
screened by underbrush. Choosing as good a posi- 
tion as possible for observing him, I watched him 
carefully through the field glasses. He went 
through the operation of drumming five or six 
times, and there need be no mistake as to how the 
sound is made.^^ After a few preliminaries, he 
seemed to grow larger, as if he had inflated his 
lungs, and then standing on tiptoe, like the rooster 
when crowing, he struck his wings violently over 
the breast, producing the sound which is often 
heard half a mile. Each spell of drumming con- 
sisted of six or eight blows, delivered slowly at 
first and more rapidly toward the end. When the 

134 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

drumming was the more rapid, the crop seemed to 
be swelled out, and the bird's contortions were very 
odd. I was sure that the wings did not touch the 
log, and that the tips of the wings were not used in 
the drumming. During this drumming, his tail 
was spread like that of a turkey gobbler. I walked 
up to within ten feet of him, examined him closely 
and satisfied myself that he was the same bird I 
had so often seen in Minnesota, and had known as 
ruffed grouse. 

Later in the day Catlin killed three elk with an 
80-228-grain hollow ball. Each was killed by a 
single shot at about a hundred yards. The ball 
went through the first animal near the heart, two 
splinters of lead being found in the heart. A 
second was shot through the heart, and another 
yearling bull was shot through the back of the 
heart and lungs. The experiment with the hollow 
ball and American powder with the proportion of 
only I to 3.6, was very satisfactory. 

The bear cub killed the night before had a full 
set of teeth and could not have been a spring cub. 
He must have been a year old.^* 

May 1 6 we went out to look about. The day was 
blustery, windy and disagreeable. We saw an old 
bear track, but nothing more, but approached three 
elk, which we did not disturb because they proved 

135 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

to be cows. During the day we saw forty-four 
black- and white-tail deer, most of them very tame, 
fifteen elk and forty or fifty antelope. Watching 
the black-tail bucks through the glasses, I saw that 
the horns had grown to the length of six or seven 
inches. The animals were all very unsuspicious. 
On the evening of May 17, I went back four 
miles to the mountain used as a lookout, when I 
killed the two bears. From here I counted eighty- 
four elk and a few deer. A bear had disturbed 
one of the elk carcasses left by Catlin a few days 
before, and I watched by the bait until nearly 7 
o'clock. I was just about starting for camp, when 
what appeared to be a good-sized black bear ap- 
peared on the high bench in the rear, and a little 
to the northeast. It appeared to be going around 
the base of the mountains, and was a mile and a 
half distant. We mounted at once and rode 
rapidly, trying to overtake him, for there was not 
much daylight left. Following the direction he 
took, about half a mile beyond the point where we 
had last seen him, we got a glimpse of him beyond 
a deep gulch, and just before he entered some pine 
timber. As he had the wind of us, if we followed 
on his trail, we crossed the gulch, descended the 
ridge and entered the little patch of timber on the 
other side, in the hope that if he came through we 

136 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

might get a shot at him. Soon, however, it became 
so dark that we could see nothing and returned to 
camp. On the way in I shot an ellc for meat, but 
we did not find him until the next day. The day 
after, Catlin climbed the mountains behind where 
the bear was seen, and discovered that the animal, 
probably frightened at my shot at the elk, had 
gone back up the mountain. Catlin also reported 
having seen three mountain goats or ibex.^^ 

On the following day we made an exploring 
expedition up the north fork of Shield's River, 
where we saw some elk and deer, but it is a cold 
country with narrow valleys, walled in by rock and 
precipitous mountains on the north. These moun- 
tains seemed a good sheep country, and we saw a 
band pretty low down. We shot at them, but 
without effect. It was windy and squally, with 
occasional showers of snow or rain, but by getting 
in the timber we escaped a wetting. On the return, 
when we were within three miles of camp, a year- 
ling bear jumped out of a gulch on the left and ran 
ahead of us. I dismounted and fired at him with a 
102-350 cartridge at 140 yards, and hit him 
through and about the head, the ball passing 
through the point of the shoulder, shattering it. 
No pieces of the ball could be found. He ran 115 
yards and was dead when we reached him. 

137 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

The next evening, while riding along the hill- 
side, I saw a black-tail buck, which, like the 
proverbial ostrich, hid his head behind a small 
bush and thought that he was concealed, even 
though his body was in full view. I rode up 
within ten steps of him before he ran. He was 
quite thin. 

The next day, which was Saturday, I set out to 
look for fat elk or bear, as meat was getting low. 
I killed two young yearling elk, one a heifer with- 
out a calf, and the other a bull with a spike four 
inches long. These two animals were killed, one at 
no yards and the other at 130 yards, with 102- 
550 cartridges. They fell in their tracks. The 
weather seemed to be getting constantly warmer, 
and the elk were following up the grass, which 
was growing green on the mountainside. The elk 
seemed to be separating into smaller bands. The 
elk and the antelope would soon be dropping young. 
From this time on, no bear sign was seen, and 
though there was plenty of game, it was useless to 
kill any of it unless we had some use for it. There- 
fore, on May 26 I had a settlement with Catlin 
and returned to Bozeman on the 30th. 

Experience had taught me that the only way to 
travel through the mountains was with a pack 

138 







BULL TRAIN AT FORT BENTON. 



r^% 




MULE TRAIN AT FORT BENTON. 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

train, and on the 4th of July, I left Bozeman 
for a trip to the Yellowstone Park, intending to go 
up the valley of the West Gallatin tO' its head and 
to return thence by whatever route should prove 
most feasible. I had with me as packer and cook, 
Joseph Cochran. 

On the way in we camped for about a week on 
the head of the West Gallatin, in order to secure 
a supply of elk meat, which should last us for at 
least a month. We expected to dry the meat, 
which must be cut into thin strips and flakes and 
exposed to the air or sun, a smoke being kept up 
beneath it to keep the flies off. In order to look 
out a route from the head of this stream it was 
necessary to ascend one of the mountain peaks to 
the east. From there it seemed evident that wc 
must go down into the valley of the Madison River 
above the upper caiion, and thence up one of its 
tributaries, the Firehole, to the Upper and Lower 
Geyser Basins. As I was going down from my 
point of lookout, I followed a small creek with an 
occasional patch of willows at its forks, and from 
one of these a cow elk rose, follow'ed by her calf. 
The cow, not at all alarmed, stopped within fifty 
yards of me, and the calf, overtaking her, began 
to pull at Its mother's udder. As I was wonder- 
ing at their lack of suspicion, another cow rose 

139 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

up, and then its calf, and joined the first cow, and 
the second calf began to nurse. I stood and 
watched them for fifteen minutes, and then rode 
away, leaving them standing there quietly nourish- 
ing their young. I never witnessed such a sight 
before or since. 

From about the 20th of July to the 25th of 
August I took great pleasure in visiting and in- 
specting all the wonders of nature in this wonder- 
ful land. My mental attitude was very different 
from my first trip through the Park, In the autumn 
of 1877. Then, when not startled by the strange- 
ness or the beauty of these wonders, one's thoughts 
were occupied with forebodings of the next snow- 
storm which might seriously delay the march, or 
else by looking for hostile Indian signs, which were 
almost everywhere to be seen. Now the climate 
was delightful. There was plenty of food, no 
known dangers and the frequent encounter of 
pleasant companions on a mission similar tO' my 
own. 

After a month of delightful sojourning here I 
determined to leave the Park and end the season 
by a hunt for bear on Clark's Fork, tO' go out to 
the plains to the south of the Yellowstone River 
and finally to return to winter quarters in Boze- 
man. I passed out of the Park by way of the east 

140 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

fork of the Yellowstone, now known as Lamar 
River, to Soda Butte Creek, and thence up that 
stream to the divide between the east fork of 
Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone. At Soda Butte 
Lake we camped for a while, getting some splendid 
trout, and here I killed the first bear seen on the 
trip. Later we stopped at Lake Abundance, an 
immense spring of unknown depth, which forms 
the headwaters of Shell Creek, a tributary of the 
Lamar River. Within five hundred yards of this 
lake is the head of the Rosebud River, which runs 
north to the Yellowstone. My second bear was 
killed near this divide. 

On the 25th of August, we crossed over the 
divide to the Clark's Fork watershed, and for a 
few days camped at a famous salt lake^^ used by 
the elk and deer. Game here was very abundant, 
especially elk in the pine timber country to the 
north of this lick. 

Our next camp was at the mouth of Crandall 
Creek, at the head of the noted Clark's Fork 
Canon. This cafion is about twelve miles in 
length, with vertical walls of red granite for the 
entire distance. As the river goes on during the 
twelve miles of its course through this cafion, the 
latter grows deeper and deeper, until at its end 
the walls are 1,500 feet in height. Below the end 

141 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

of the red granite formation, the granite continues 
for six miles through various geological strata, and 
on the western slope there is room enough for a 
trail. Near the lower end of the red granite 
canon the south fork,'^'^ a considerable stream — at 
times a river — leaps from this deep, narrow canon 
through the vertical walls of the main caiion and 
falls almost as a single cascade two hundred feet 
to the river below. At a distance, it has the ap- 
pearance of an immense water-spout from a water 
tank. In many respects this is a most remarkable 
caiion. I have already described it. 

From here we explored the high mountain 
plateau on each side of Bear Tooth Mountain, but 
finding no bear sign, went on down to Dead Indian 
Creek, and after camping there, followed the trail, 
which leaves the valley of Clark's Fork, because it 
is impossible tO' go down through the caiion. The 
climb over Dead Indian Hill is a rise of two thou- 
sand feet by aneroid barometer, and descending to 
Clark's Fork, the fall is twenty-five hundred feet. 
No bears were seen on Clark's Fork, but at Heart 
Mountain two were killed, but without adventure. 
As autumn was approaching, it seemed best to 
come down from the mountains, cross the river 
and gradually work around the foothills of the 
mountain south of the Yellowstone Valley to the 

142 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

head of Boulder River, where grizzly bears were 
supposed to occur. This route lay through the 
Crow Indian reservation, but as permission to pass 
over it was always asked of the agent of the Crows, 
I was always treated well, and not annoyed by 
beggars. When Indians visited the camp they 
were always kindly received, and if it was near 
meal time they were always fed with the best the 
camp afforded. 

We made camp on the east fork of Boulder 
River about the 28th of September, and remained 
there until the 19th of November. Elk were 
fairly abundant, but deer were not seen. At this 
time I had in my employ a man named Milligan, 
who was married to a Crow woman and lived on a 
ranch at the mouth of Deer Creek. He cared for 
the horses. I promised that if he would go toi the 
ranch for a wagon, enough elk could be killed for 
his winter meat, and about that time a band of 
elk wandered to the vicinity of the camp and 
seven were killed and their meat well taken care 
of for him. At this camp only two bears were 
killed — without adventure. As the Crow Indians 
did not hunt grizzly bears, it was hoped that they 
would be found abundant on the headwaters of 
the Boulder. 

On the 9th of November camp was moved about 
143 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

five miles to the Boulder River, at a point about a 
mile and a half above the natural bridge. Here 
there was a pool in the river made by a beaver 
dam, which afforded us a sufficiency of trout. Mil- 
ligan and Cochran had their traps set, and in a 
few days caught some beaver, the tails of which 
were saved for beaver tail soup. While here, Wm. 
Judd, the Chief Clerk of the Crow Indian Agency, 
visited me and remained to the end of the hunt. 
He was fond of hunting and fishing, and especially 
expert in casting the fly. On any favorable day he 
would cast into an air-hole of the frozen river and 
haul out trout on the ice. I had never heard of 
trout being caught with an artificial fly in the depth 
of winter. Our camp was well protected. We 
had a sheltered place for the tent, an abundance 
of elk and black-tail deer, trout whenever desired, 
and beaver tail for soup. Up to this time the 
weather had been clear and bracing, nor had there 
been any snowstorms, such as usually occur in Sep- 
tember and the early part of October. 

We had no success with bears from this camp, 
although one came almost every night, climbed the 
tree on which MiUigan's fifteen elk hams were 
hung, carried one away to a neighboring thicket 
and feasted on it at his leisure. Although I 
watched for him almost every night until a late 

144 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

hour, he appeared to have knowledge of It, and did 
not come until after I had gone to bed. Thinking 
that his den might be in a nearby thicket, Milligan 
and I followed him there, but he kept out of sight. 
We found only the bones of the elk, which he had 
picked clean. His depredations were at last 
stopped by hanging the remaining pieces of elk 
meat on a cottonwood sapling, thought to be too 
small for him to climb. The next morning we had 
evidence that he had tried to climb it, and after 
finding that he could not do so, he began to gnaw 
at the sapling at about the height of his head when 
standing. This was the only bear of whose pres- 
ence we learned. 

About December i, the weather changed and 
became stormy, but It was not until the 1 6th that the 
storms began in earnest. Then it snowed almost 
continuously, and the temperature dropped almost 
to zero, and possibly still lower, for my ther- 
mometer did not register below that mark. By 
December 21, the snow was sixteen to eighteen 
Inches deep at camp. Not relishing the idea of 
being snowed in, we packed up and started down 
the Boulder River to the Yellowstone, instead of 
attempting to cross over on the snow drifts directly 
to Benson's Landing. 

So much snow was encountered that day that we 
14s 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

made scarcely ten miles, and it grew constantly 
colder. We camped in the snow, as the tents could 
not be pitched because the ground was frozen and 
we had no iron pins. During the night, the tem- 
perature fell below zero, but toward morning it 
moderated, with a light snow, and all day long 
we traveled in the face of the north wind, the cold 
growing more severe toward night. After travel- 
mg about fifteen miles, we came to the camp of 
Walters,^^ a white man with an Indian wife. He 
gave us permission to take shelter for the night in 
his cabin, which was about sixteen feet square. 
Walters' family consisted of four, and by the 
time my party of four big men with their baggage 
was stowed away inside, there was not much stand- 
ing room; still the night was spent comfortably. 
The following morning was clear, sunshiny and 
cold. Mr. Judd, being an old-timer, and realizing 
the impossibility of getting to his home, decided to 
start at once and make the cabin of another white 
man that night. I determined to rest one day, as 
the last two days had been pretty rough. Milligan 
had twoi hounds, and we put them through some 
willow thickets on the stream above the cabin. He 
arranged the stands, and with his dogs drove the 
thicket and we got two deer. The sun was shin- 
ing brightly, but it was very cold. About ten 

146 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

inches of snow lay on the ground. At midnight 
the wind began to blow, seeming to Increase in 
velocity until about daylight, when it was moving 
down stream with hurricane force. The air was so 
full of snow that it was barely possible to see the 
wood-pile, about thirty yards from the door. 
Neither man nor beast could face such a storm, and 
we postponed our departure. It was difficult to 
keep warm within the cabin, as the wind appeared 
to blow through Its sides, though it was a well- 
chinked log house. The large tarpaulin floor of 
my tent was stretched on the windward side of the 
cabin behind the kitchen stove to act as a wind- 
break. Each one then put on all his clothing, fur 
coat, leggings, buffalo moccasins, as if traveling. 
Then, by hovering close to the stove, which was 
kept filled, we managed to keep comfortable dur- 
ing the day. 

All that day and all the next, the wind continued 
to blow with unabated fury. The next morning, 
December 25, Christmas, the wind had somewhat 
abated, and by noon of the day following, the 
storm had spent its force, and we could venture out 
and recognize the sun, as the air was no longer 
filled with fine snow. The afternoon Mllligan 
went in search of our horses and found them in the 
timber nearby, apparently having done well. 

147 



Hunting at High Attitudes 

With Cochran I crossed the Yellowstone on the 
ice to the stage station^^ on the north side, in order 
to get the news of the outside world. On our way 
we passed through the river bottom, covered with 
timber and willow brush, and there stumbled on 
a pitiable sight. At the beginning of the blizzard 
all the cattle from the distant ranches had sought 
shelter in the river bottoms. Without food and 
with only the shelter afforded by the timber in such 
a blizzard, and with the temperature so low, it is a 
wonder that any of these cattle survived. As it 
was, there was hardly a head of them that was 
not frozen. All were so poor and shrunken that 
it looked impossible for them to survive until 
spring. At the stage station we learned that some 
stages were got through from Fort Keogh, and one 
was expected on the next day. It was afterward 
ascertained that during the blizzard the tempera- 
ture at Bozeman and at the Crow Agency regis- 
tered 40 degrees below zero. With such tempera- 
ture and with a fifty-mile-an-hour blizzard, it is 
difficult to see how either man or beast exposed to 
it could survive. 

We made preparations to leave for Bozeman 
early on the 27th, expecting to make old Crow 
Agency by night. The roads had been swept clean 
of snow, exposing many icy places, but the tem- 

148 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

perature was perfectly mild. About midday my 
riding mare Kate slipped on the Ice, falling with 
her full weight on my right foot, clothed only in 
a buffalo moccasin. This would have been a seri- 
ous matter at any time, but was especially so in the 
midst of winter, when seventy-five miles from a 
surgeon or even from a shelter from its storms. 
The mare was not injured, and as there was no 
alternative, I rode her for the rest of the day to 
the old agency, conscious that my foot was be- 
coming very much inflamed. As soon as I reached 
there the foot was placed in a tub of snow water, 
and everything done to keep down the inflamma- 
tion. The keeper of the old agency was a Mohawk 
Indian named Milo. He had drifted West and 
married a Crow woman and settled down at the 
original Crow Agency, determined to enter it as a 
homestead as soon as the Indian title had been ex- 
tinguished. His wife was a deaf mute, the only 
one of the red race that I have ever heard of.®^ 
She was evidently quick-witted, an accomplished 
sign talker, and the most skillful pantomimist I 
have ever seen. 

My accident necessitated a change of plan. It 
was arranged that Milllgan should take back with 
him to his ranch three of my horses and keep them 
for the winter. All my camp baggage was to be 

149 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

left in Milligan's care until sent for. The fol- 
lowing day Milo was to take me in his wagon to 
Benson's Landing, where I might intercept the 
mail wagon bound for Bozeman, about twenty-six 
miles distant. Cochran was to take one pack ani- 
mal with my personal baggage and my riding mare 
Kate to Bozeman. 

Milo suggested to me that he might not be able 
to fulfill his contract. There was a possibility that 
the ice in the river would not be strong enough to 
bear his team. At present the stream was full of 
running ice, except at still places or pools, where 
there was little current. He had heard that the 
crossing at Benson was frozen, for yesterday he 
pointed out that the ice might be moving to- 
morrow, in which case there was no possible way 
of getting me across the river. The fact that thirty 
miles below, opposite Walters' ranch, the ice was 
strong enough to bear single persons, was nO' in- 
dication of the condition of things at Benson's. 
Moreover, the recent cold snap had not lasted long 
enough to^ freeze the upper reaches of the stream. 

Although during the night my foot had become 
more inflamed, we made an early start with Milo 
and his team for the ford near Benson's Landing, 
nine miles above. Several buffalo' robes were taken 
to provide against a cold ride to Bozeman that 

150 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

night. The route we followed several times passed 
near the river, and the view was not reassuring, for 
the stream seemed filled with a mass of running 
ice in large blocks. When we came to the ford, 
however, the ice was still, but careful examination 
had to be made before trusting the team on it. For- 
tunately three men were camped on the opposite 
side, who at once responded to our inquiries, and 
with their axes commenced sounding the ice for a 
proper route for the wagon. 

Milo and I were silent but interested spectators. 
The men reported that they had found a zigzag 
route, which they thought safe under the circum- 
stances. In the mean time I had told Milo of the 
importance of crossing. Unless we made the trip 
to-day it might be a week or more before we could 
do so. My foot — if none of the bones were broken 
— might by that time be in such a condition as to 
prevent traveling. I preferred to risk the ice. I 
asked Milo if he was willing to risk the passage, 
and his answer came promptly, "Yes." 

"Then go ahead," was the response. 

I at once threw off all robes, being determined if 
the team went through the ice, to make a fight for 
life. If they did so, I knew that the current 
would be strong enough to take them under the 
ice, and I was determined to make an effort to 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

scramble on top as they passed under. One of our 
friends from the other side now went ahead of the 
horses, following the zigzag route selected, and 
our relief was great when we had passed over the 
deepest part of the stream — at this crossing nearly 
one hundred yards wide — but greater still when 
solid ground was reached, and congratulations 
were offered and received. 

These men were of the old times then to be 
found on the Northwestern Indian frontier. They 
were the pioneers and forerunners of western civ- 
ilization. Though improvident, they were brave, 
big-hearted men, willing to divide the last crust of 
bread or the last dollar with a fellow-man in dis- 
tress. When we reached the stage station^^ the 
bob-sled stage was expected, and not long after- 
ward it hove in sight. As it drew up, I hobbled 
to the window on a crutch, and saw a single pas- 
senger, who also was leaning on a crutch. It 
turned out that he was U. S. Marshal Botkin, of 
Montana Territory, returning on official business 
from Fort Keogh or Miles City. It seemed tO' me 
that it took good nerve for a man on crutches to 
attempt such a trip in winter. 

When we started for Bozeman, I found the 
marshal an intelligent, agreeable man, who had 
been a good deal about Washington, and was ac- 

152 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

quainted with a good many of the public men of 
the day, of whom I knew many from the South. 
After a warm supper at the stage station, ^^ about 
nightfall we set out for the summit of the divide, 
where the only trouble was likely tO' be found. 
When we reached it, the wind was blowing fiercely, 
filling the air with fine snow and preventing vision 
for more than fifty or sixty feet. Near this point 
the road crossed a ravine, then a quarter of a mile 
wide. Passing teams had packed down the snow 
in this ravine, but at present the loose snow was 
drifting constantly, and the road-bed — of packed 
snow — now seemed twelve or fifteen feet above 
the ground. It was a good road, so long as one 
kept the beaten track, but if the driver failed to do 
so, the wagon, striking the soft snow, would turn 
over and with the horses be buried in the soft drift 
beneath. Along the road, pine saplings had been 
planted as a guide for all passersby in winter. The 
drifting and blowing snow had obliterated every 
sign of the beaten road. 

When we reached this point, the driver was 
much discouraged by the drifting of the snow. It 
was bright moonlight, yet the air was so full of 
fine snow that it was very difficult to see what was 
before one. However, the driver went some dis- 
tance along the roadway to see whether he could 

153 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

be guided by the pine saplings. Presently he re- 
turned and reported that he could not see from one 
sapling to the next one, and that we would be sure 
to get into trouble if we attempted to go ahead. 
If team or wagon got off the beaten track, the 
wagon would turn over, carry the team and outfit 
with it, and horses, passengers and all would be 
tangled up together in eight or ten feet of loose 
snow. Even should no one be hurt, it might be 
10 o'clock the next day before help could reach us. 
To the two passengers who had only two legs be- 
tween them, this was not a pleasant prospect. The 
temperature was 15 degrees below zero, and I was 
inclined to side with the driver and return tO' the 
road ranch. Fortunately, I had not committed 
myself before the marshal spoke up and said, 
"Well, now, Colonel Pickett, I have been fighting 
snow for the last week, and am a little used to it. 
I am in favor of going ahead." That speech stif- 
fened my backbone and the driver's. 

We discussed the situation in full, and it was 
finally determined that the driver should walk 
ahead, and after finding the first sapling should 
return slowly, marking the crest of the road-bed 
with his feet. Then he should drive along the road 
to the first sapling, repeat his foot journey to the 
next sapling, and so until the ravine had been 

154 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

crossed. The plan was carried out, and when we 
reached the main road, a load was lifted from my 
spirits second only to the relief felt after safely 
crossing the ice of the Yellowstone the day before. 

From this point to Bozeman it was only twelve 
miles. The road was downhill, well broken 
through the snow, and a bright moon was shining. 
Our spirits had rebounded after the perplexities of 
the crossing, and with a talk over incidents of our 
past lives, and some amusing stories by Marshal 
Botkin of Washington life and the nation's great 
men, the time passed rapidly until lo o'clock at 
night, when we reached Bozeman. 

My friend. Dr. Monroe, examined my leg, told 
me that he thought no bones were broken, and I 
went to bed with a contented mind. For a month 
thereafter, however, this crushed foot kept me on 
crutches, yet the comforts of shelter from the 
weather, and companionship of friends, caused me 
almost to forget the pain and inconvenience. 

I have always felt under obligations to Marshal 
Botkin for the nerve displayed that stormy night. 
Had he faltered about the crossing, our arrival at 
Bozeman and shelter would have been delayed a 
day. Marshal Botkin was afterward elected 
Lieutenant-Governor of the State of Montana, and 
for some time was acting Governor. 

155 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

In a long and somewhat eventful life, it has 
been my fate to pass through many scenes that re- 
quired nerve and determination. Some of these 
were the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Murfrees- 
boro (including the battle of January 2, of Breck- 
enridge's division), Missionary Ridge, and the 
battles of the Atlanta Campaign, yet I have always 
felt that the crossing of the Yellowstone on that 
cold December day, all things considered, required 
the possession of a higher degree of nerve and de- 
termination than any crisis of my life. 



is6 



1 880 

After about a month in the Yellowstone National 
Park during the summer and early fall of 1880, I 
determined to cross the mountains to the east of 
the Yellowstone Lake, drop down on the waters 
of the famous Stinking River, and spend the 
remainder of the season hunting on that stream 
and its tributaries until driven out by the snow. 
Then I intended passing to the plains below and 
following the foothills of the mountain ranges 
bordering the Yellowstone River on the south, to 
return to my old winter quarters at Bozeman. 
George Herendeen^^ was with me as guide, 
mentor and friend, and a Swedish boy as cook and 
camp keeper. 

Our first camp half way up the mountainside 
was in a park bordering Brimstone Lake. On the 
south side sputtered a small group of geysers that 
were constantly steaming and fuming. From the 
southeast a small mountain stream of pure cold 
water entered the park. It was ten or twelve feet 
across and a foot deep. Near where it entered the 

157 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

lake, there boiled up in the middle of the stream 
a clear cold spring, whose waters rose a foot above 
the surrounding level. This water was very 
palatable and cold, yet not more than a hundred 
feet distant the hot springs were steaming and 
discharging. On the north side of the lake 
another small mountain stream entered it, and 
near this our tents were placed. Brimstone Lake 
was very shallow, with bubbles of gas constantly 
coming up through the water. 

For a day or two^ we camped here, looking for 
Jones' Pass through the mountain range we wished 
to cross. One morning, just before September 30, 
we had been kept housed in the tent by a cold, 
drizzling rain, but about 9 o'clock, the rain having 
ceased, I stepped outside and looked around. Just 
in front of the tent and about a hundred and fifty 
yards toward the lake, was a grizzly bear aimlessly 
rooting in the ground. I stepped into the tent, 
secured my rifle and cartridge belt and passed out. 
My dog Nip, judging from my actions that some- 
thing was going to happen, followed at heel, 
though I did not notice him. Meantime, the bear 
had moved to the left and was a little further off. 
I concluded from its careless actions in full view of 
the tent that it was not much afraid, and rapidly 
approached it. When within about, 125 yards 

158 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

I dropped on one knee and prepared to fire. In 
the meantime, it had paid no attention to me. 
When it exposed its side, I fired. As if expect- 
ing it, and without looking around, the bear came 
charging directly toward me, with long jumps. 
The dog met it about half way, dashed at it, 
when it turned and again exposed its side. I fired 
again. At the crack of the rifle the bear left the 
dog and dashed straight toward me. The dog was 
unable to stop the charge, but when within thirty 
feet I delivered another shot, which stopped her, 
for it proved to be a female. 

In the meantime, George Herendeen had come 
up carrying the first weapon he could pick up, a 
lo-gauge shotgim loaded with 4 drams of powder 
and 9 buckshot. He gave her the coup de grace, 
shooting at the shoulder, but the buckshot flat- 
tened on the bone. She weighed only about 350 
pounds, but had what is called by furriers a silk- 
robe skin. Each of the shots hit her, and any one 
of them would have been fatal in a short time. 

The actions of this bear were so aggressive that 
we were curious to learn how she had entered this 
basin, and as it had rained enough to make the 
ground soft, this was not difficult. An examination 
of her tracks in the mud showed that she had 
come down the stream on the north side of the 

159 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

park, had passed near the tent and out into the 
open prairie near the lake, where I had first seen 
her. Her organs of scent must have told her that 
people were in the tent. She had evidently come 
into the camp seeking trouble, and at my first 
shot realized whence it came, and did not look up 
to see. 

From this camp, we continued to search for 
Jones' Pass over the range. Captain Jones, when 
he went through the pass which bears his name, 
had as guides some Shoshoni Indians, and we felt 
certain that this must be the best pass. At length 
we determined that a certain pass must be Jones', 
and arranged to move the next day. As we were 
out of meat, I had killed a fat black-tail, brought 
it near the trail we should probably follow, and 
hung it up in a tree out of reach of wolves and 
foxes. The next day when we passed near this 
tree, my dog rushed ahead and forced some animal 
to tree. Supposing it a black bear, I made a care- 
ful approach in order to get a sure shot. I could 
see the animal indistinctly, but before getting near 
enough to shoot it, it had sprung to the ground, 
drove off the dog, and away they went. On 
examining the surroundings, I saw that the animal 
had climbed the tree, cutting the leather strap by 
which the deer hung, descended, and was at work 

i6o 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

on the carcass when the dog drove him up the 
tree. I saw that the work was that of a skunk, 
bear, or wolverine. This was the third time 
during my travels in the mountains that I had seen 
this animal in life. It is the largest of the weasel 
family, and seems to have the head and face of 
the common skunk, and the body of the bear. It 
sits up on its hindfeet like a bear or a badger, and 
is remarkable for its long claws. In a fight, it is 
said to be the "boss" of the mountains. The dog, 
however, easily makes it take a tree. In this case 
Nip soon announced that it was again treed, but 
as I approached, it jumped to the ground, and 
away the two went until the dog overtook it. 
I soon gave up the pursuit. 

We crossed the range on what was supposed to 
be Jones' Pass. It was not that, but the mistake 
was not discovered until we were too far down 
the mountain to turn back. At last we came to a 
ledge of rock in the trail which required a jump 
down of three feet, and as our pack animals were 
loaded with two and a half months' supply of pro^ 
visions, it required all Herendeen's experience as 
a mountain man to get the loaded horses below 
the ledge. At last, however, it was done without 
unpacking, and a little later, coming to a small 
meadow with water, we made camp. The reason 

i6i 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

for doing so was that the woods appeared to be 
full of elk, whistling. 

After dinner Herendeen sallied out for meat, 
and soon returned with the news that he had 
killed a fat bull within a quarter of a mile of 
camp. We brought in the hams and loins, and 
were now well provided with fresh meat. 

The next day was October i, and the camp was 
moved about fourteen miles to the main tributary 
of the Stinking River, the north fork lying at this 
camp about 3,500 feet below the mountain passes 
over which we had just come. We had a beautiful 
camp. Nearby was a small meadow, and meander- 
ing through it a clear brook full of small trout 
four or five inches in length, which were delicious 
when cooked whole. The main stream was abund- 
antly supplied with larger trout. The weather was 
clear and bracing, and for about a week we stayed 
here, enjoying every hour. Near the head of 
this stream the mountain peaks rise about 4,000 
feet above the valley, and from our camp down 
to the debouchment of a stream into the plain, the 
valley is an almost continuous caiion for about fifty 
miles. The vertical cliffs which wall in the valley 
are composed of a red conglomerate of volcanic 
origin that at some early geological period must 
have been forced up through the earth's crust, and 

162 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

in after ages, by the action of water or air, so 
eroded that they have assumed grand and some- 
times fantastical forms. I saw several cathedrals 
with tall needle-shaped spires. There was a solid 
block of city buildings, a bank and safe vault. 
Looking up on the cliff opposite, there was out- 
lined against the sky an old woman, a grand- 
mother, comfortably seated in a colossal arm- 
chair. Before her stood a boy, her grandson, his 
hands in his pockets — fumbling probably with his 
marbles^ — the grandmother gently chiding him for 
some prank, and he humbly taking the reproof. 
Such fantasies were developed In my imagination 
at the time, and I still recall them. Among the 
thickets was a tall needle-shaped spire a hundred 
feet high, ten feet across at its base, with a great 
round ball, a boulder, balanced on this pinnacle. 
We remained about a week at this camp, and I 
killed a bear. Here occurred an incident illus- 
trating a phase of the human mind that most 
observant people have noticed. This is, that when 
from any cause one person is intently thinking of 
someone in front of him and at the same time 
gazing at him, the object of his thoughts will 
Involuntarily turn his head and look straight at 
the gazer. The same psychological fact obtains 
between man and some of the lower animals. 

163 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Finding that a bear had been seen near a por- 
tion of elk killed three miles above camp, I deter- 
mined to watch for him one evening, and was on 
hand early. My reconnaissance of the afternoon 
had led me to believe that the bear slept in a 
thicket across the river. I chose my position so 
that I could overlook this thicket as well as com- 
mand ai view of a probable approach from other 
directions. The elk bait lay at the foot of a 
bench about ten or fifteen feet high, and by ap- 
proaching it from above a shot could be delivered 
at twenty-five or thirty yards. The wind was blow- 
ing gently down stream, the proper direction. 

About sundown I saw occasionally a dark spot 
appear on the edge of the thicket, and after two 
or three examinations of the surroundings, the 
bear stepped out confidently and crossed the river 
toward the bait. From time to time I peeped over 
the bench, and at length found that he had reached 
it. I was wearing a pair of Indian moccasins, for 
when careful work in approaching a bear was 
needed, the hob-nailed leather hunting shoes I 
usually wore were taken off. Gradually approach- 
ing the rim of the bench, I found the bear busy, 
and looking through my field glasses, saw that he 
was lying lengthwise on the elk, his head away 
from me. The position was uncertain for a fatal 

164 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

shot. I crept up to within twenty or twenty-five 
yards with the rifle ready. Suddenly, without 
warning, he sprang to the left, made one or two 
jumps and stopped broadside to me, looking 
directly at me. This sudden action disconcerted 
me and I fired so hastily as to miss him, perhaps 
a fortunate occurrence, for had he been hit, even 
fatally, he would have rushed directly at me. Still, 
as I was on the uphill side, I think he could have 
been managed. 

For an instant after the report of the rifle he 
stopped, and then bounded off to the crossing of 
the river about a hundred and fifty yards distant. 
As he ran, he was given a good shot behind the 
short ribs, which rolled him over, but he jumped 
up and soon reached the timber, closely followed 
by Nip. The dog brought him to bay, and I 
followed at my best pace. When I reached the 
river the bear had crossed, followed by the dog, 
which again brought him to bay in the open 
timber. By this time, however, it had become so 
dark in this canon that the bear could not be 
distinguished so that I could shoot at him. Close 
to the river on that side was an abrupt bluff, and 
as the actions of the bear and dog indicated that 
they were moving to the left, I determined to cross 
the stream below and endeavor to intercept them. 

i6s 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

I walked rapidly down the bank under cover of 
the willow brush, waded the knee-deep river at a 
rapid, fifty yards across, and hurried to the bluff, 
but the bear was ahead of me. He was evidently 
in a bad humor, and eager to punish the dog, 
which kept not closer than twenty yards from him. 
Soon the bear turned up the valley of the stream, 
and I followed as fast as the rocks would permit. 
It soon became too dark tO' see distinctly, and the 
barking of the dog Indicated that the bear was 
traveling faster than the hunter, so I reluctantly 
whistled off the dog, recrossed the river, regained 
my shoes, and with some difficulty found Kate, 
who^ nickered cheerfully at my approach, mounted 
and reached camp after 9 o'clock, a discouraged, 
disappointed individual. A warm supper, dry 
clothing, warm blankets and a sound sleep greatly 
refreshed me, so that the next morning I felt per- 
fectly well. 

The discovery by the bear that I was approach- 
ing convinced me of the truth of the theory of a 
psychological magnetism that I have spoken of 
before. This bear could not possibly have seen me 
nor taken alarm at any noise that I made, for 1 
was In moccasins and the ground was level and 
clear of brush. Also I had the wind of him. 
Going back over the ground next day, I found a 

166 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

pool of blood, where the animal had lain down on 
the edge of the river. 

On October 21 we moved camp about seven 
miles downstream to a spot near the river bank 
well protected by timber. On the opposite side 
the red conglomerate cliffs rose about a hundred 
feet vertically from the water's edge. Trout were 
abundant and easily caught. At this camp I killed 
three large grizzly bears, each with a dark, 
heavily furred robe. None of the three caused me 
any great trouble, for in each case the first shot 
was fatal. 

One bright morning the mountains on the north 
side of the stream were climbed to a height of 
about three thousand feet in search of mountain 
sheep. Since leaving the band of elk we had not 
seen many deer, and four healthy souls — including 
the dog — consumed a good deal of meat. From 
one point a fine view was had of the mountains 
across the Stinking River gorge, now white with 
snow. With the field glasses I could detect a 
plainly defined arch, which spanned one of the 
chasms or gorges. The arch was elliptical in shape 
and apparently of one hundred feet span, of gray 
stone, and was plainly outlined against the white 
snow lying on the side of the gorge below. I 
examined it long and carefully through a pair of 

167 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

good field glasses, and was convinced of the exist- 
ence here of a natural bridge. The autumn was 
so late as to make it impossible to further examine 
into the matter, nor in later years did an oppor- 
tunity to do this ever present itself. 

After spending a week at this camp and dis- 
posing of or frightening away the remaining bears 
in the neighborhood, I sent George downstream 
to look for a new camp. He returned in the 
evening and reported having found a good camp 
and nearby had come upon a band of elk and had 
killed a couple near the camping spot. 

Accordingly, on the 29th, we moved about seven 
miles downstream to the mouth of a large tribu- 
tary coming in from the south, and thence about 
two miles up that stream to the chosen camping 
place. As we afterward learned, there were 
many elk horns in this valley, which indicated that 
during February and March, at which time these 
animals shed their horns, they had made their way 
thus far back to the mountains from their winter 
range on the plains below. From this circum- 
stance I named the stream Elk Horn, and it bears 
that name to-day. 

The camp was a good one, the grass very luxu- 
riant, making the spot a fine grazing ground for 
elk and other animals. Soon after making camp, 

168 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

the best parts of the two elk were hung up in 
camp. We soon discovered that we were about a 
quarter of a mile below a runway traveled each 
year by the black-tail deer, when the snows of 
autumn warned them that winter was near. As 
soon as the snow becomes too deep tO' permit them 
to feed, these deer come down from the moun- 
tains to the Bad Lands on the plains below the 
foothills. In the spring, as the snows disappear 
and the young grass starts, they return by the same 
route. By watching this runway we could get a 
deer almost any day as long as the migration 
continued, but as soon as the snow accumulated, 
as it did before we left this camp, the deer ceased 
to pass ; no doubt because they had all gone down. 
These runways are not along the valleys of the 
streams, but below the high mountain ridges, prob- 
ably because the deer know that in the valley their 
enemies would watch for them. 

One of the elk killed by Herendeen lay in the 
valley, about three-quarters of a mile above camp, 
and on the side of the mountain in another direc- 
tion, was a second. These baits were soon dis- 
covered by the bears, and a few evenings after- 
ward, watching at the one above camp, I killed a 
large grizzly with a dark, well-furred robe. He 
required only a single shot, and gave no trouble. 

169 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

A few evenings later, while watching the elk 
carcass on the mountainside near camp, I saw a 
bear. The only way to approach him was to go 
up the valley and to climb over a rocky ledge to a 
position about on his level and within twenty or 
twenty-five yards of him. I knew that, unless hit 
through the brain or spinal cord, this bear, when 
shot, would — as bears usually do — place his head 
between his hindlegs and roll down the hillside. 
The first shot was delivered at his mass, and he 
acted as I expected. I quickly reloaded, and when 
he stopped rolling and straightened up before run- 
ning, I gave him a second shot, which was suffi- 
cient. After dressing the carcass I found that the 
big horse that I had ridden had freed himself and 
gone to the herd, and to reach camp I was obliged 
to wade the creek. 

Herendeen had told me that an elk he had shot 
at and probably wounded had gone up a dry 
ravine which came in just above the camp, and I 
determined to investigate in that direction, for it 
was possible that he had died from the wound. 
Following up this dry gulch that had been washed 
out six or eight feet deep and ten or twelve feet 
wide at the top by the melting snows, I found his 
body and saw that a bear had begun to feed on 
it. I selected a watch point, and George, the dog 

170 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

and myself were promptly on the ground. Nip 
had recently acquired the habit of bolting for the 
bear before the first shot was fired, and George 
went with me to hold the dog, which otherwise, in 
his anxiety to have a share in the excitement, would 
spoil the evening's work. The point selected for 
the reconnaissance was on the side of a valley 
within half a mile of the bait and commanded a 
view of the high sloping mountainside opposite for 
about one mile. This was without timber, and 
from the signs seen in the morning, I expected 
the bear to come from that direction. We had not 
long to wait. Glimpses of a dark patch were seen, 
now disappearing and again coming in view down 
the mountainside. It was a large, dark-coated 
grizzly, headed directly for the elk. The dog 
saw him, and was trembling with excitement. Wc 
kept well out of sight until the bear disappeared 
near the carcass. I waited for a time in order that 
he might get thoroughly to work, and be so in- 
tently engaged as to be a little off his guard. The 
understanding with Herendeen was that he was to 
turn the dog loose at the first shot. In the morn- 
ing I had determined my line of approach, and 
intended to enter the gulch below the bait and 
follow it up, and thereafter to be governed by 
circumstances. 

171 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

When I reached the gulch at the point I had 
determined on and had cautiously reconnoitered, I 
could see nothing of bait or bear. Something had 
happened since morning. I therefore cautiously 
withdrew, and by a circuitous route reached a 
point further up the gulch — ground well above 
the bear, so that I might locate him, for I was 
sure he was there. Reaching this higher ground, 
and with a clear view of the place where the elk 
had been, it was not to be seen. Evidently it had 
been dragged down into the gulch within twenty 
or thirty feet of where it had been. As the elk 
weighed at least a thousand pounds, the bear that 
had moved it must have been a large one and full 
of resource. 

I now removed my heavy leather shoes and 
cautiously approached the spot, field glasses in 
hand. The gulch was deep and narrow. I wanted 
to make a sure shot, and to do this it would be 
necessary to get very close to the bear before firing. 
The utmost care was necessary to prevent even a 
slight noise, for these bears have a keen sense of 
hearing, as well as scent. Stooping and stealthily 
approaching, I rose partly up when within twenty- 
five or thirty feet of the bear. He was there, but 
it had become so dark in that hole that I used my 
glasses to see him. He was lying on the carcass 

172 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

with his head from me, exposing his back and 
shoulders. His head was so placed that I feared 
to shoot at it. I determined then to shoot at his 
back, just behind the shoulders, depending on get- 
ting a second shot before he could do much. When 
the shot was fired, the bear gave no squall — an 
indication that he was ready to fight — and 
scrambled up the side gulch toward which he was 
headed. Before he had gone ten feet from the 
edge of the gulch, I fired a second shot at his body 
without stopping him. Just then the dog passed 
me like a whirlwind. It was important to stop 
the bear before he reached a pine thicket toward 
which he was headed, and I fired a third shot, 
hoping to hit near the root of the tail and paralyze 
his hindquarters. Just as I was on the point of 
pulling the trigger, the dog got in the way, and 
I raised the rifle slightly, just grazing the rump 
of the bear, which, with the dog, had disappeared 
into the pine thicket. Out of patience with myself, 
and grumbling over the bad luck that after so 
much work the bear should escape, I followed 
rapidly — luckily on my side of the gulch — and 
had reached a position still further up the gulch, 
when I heard a rustling in the pine thicket, and 
out rushed Nip, closely followed by the bear, evi- 
dently furious with rage. Now, an ill-bred, badly 

173 



Hiintittg at High Altitudes 

mannered dog, under these circumstances would 
naturally have rushed back to his master for pro 
tection, but Nip did nothing of the sort. With an 
intelligence quite human, as it seemed to me, he 
kept just far enough ahead of the bear to lead it 
on, the dog's head turned first on one side, then 
on the other, always with one eye on the pursuer. 
He led the bear straight across the open ground, 
causing him to expose his side to me, and saying as 
plainly as could be, "Now, boss, give him a good 
shot," I took advantage of the opportunity, hit- 
ting him in the side. The ball should have knocked 
him down, but did not. On the contrary, he turned 
from the dog and rushed straight toward me. In 
reloading, the shell stuck in the chamber and the 
breech-block could not be closed. The bear was 
near the brink of the gulch, evidently about to 
jump over. 

The dog did not hesitate. As soon as the bear 
turned on me he was immediately at the bear's 
heel, and at the critical moment nabbed it and 
held on as long as he dared. The angry bear 
whirled, turned on the dog and chased him back 
fifty yards to the edge of the bottom. This gave 
me time to reload, and when the bear stopped, I 
fired again. Again it charged me on a full run, 
and this time the dog was not able to stop him. 

174 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

Just before he reached the gulch, I fired another 
shot, and on reaching Its edge, he had become so 
weakened from loss of blood that he could not 
make the jump, but fell down into the ravine, and 
was soon beyond doing any harm. 

During the last part of this excitement, I noticed 
George Herendeen standing by at the foot of a 
tree, and after the bear had fallen Into the gulch 
and become quiet, George came up to me and said, 
"Old fellow, a bear will get you yet!" I rephed 
by asking, "Well, George, why didn't you pitch in 
and help?" 

"Help?" he answered; "now you are forgetting 
that you have always said, In a scrimmage with a 
bear you did not wish any help; that you could 
handle them, and that if anything happened it 
was your lookout." 

This, of course, was true; but if I had needed 
help, George would certainly have done his part. 

I had always felt that If by any chance my rifle 
should fail me, as a last resort, I would face the 
bear, use the rifle with Its heavy breech action as a 
club and endeavor to deliver a crushing blow over 
the animal's brain. I felt that on this occasion I 
came near being obliged to face this test. If the 
bear had succeeded In jumping the gulch, I do not 
know what might have happened. 

175 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

George Herendeen's remarks on this occasion 
suggest a digression. 

After the seasons of 1877 and 1878, I had 
about made up my mind that I knew nearly as 
much of the habits of bears as almost any old- 
timer that I could secure as guide. Few of these 
men had "lost any bears" ; they cared nothing for 
whatever glory attached to bear slaying, and on 
these occasions were not of much use except to 
help take care of the skins. I had concluded also 
that I had acquired such skill in the use of the 
rifle, and such confidence in myself, that I did not 
fear an encounter with any of the wild animals to 
be met with. I felt, too, that if, with the modern 
breech-loader and his supposedly superior intelli- 
gence, man was not equal to an encounter with a 
grizzly bear, he had better stay at home. I con- 
sidered also the danger of being shot by a com- 
panion in the excitement of the scrimmage or of 
my shooting him, for on these occasions few people 
keep cool. For these reasons I always preferred 
to hunt alone, whether by night or day, finding 
the game for myself and taking care of it. 

An objection to this practice was the danger of 
accident from the rifle, from the stumbling or fall- 
ing of the horse or from a fall through some acci- 
dent which might result in a broken limb or in 

176 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

some minor mishap, which would prevent locomo- 
tion. I had therefore made it a rule in camp that 
if at nightfall any one of the party failed to make 
his appearance, the other members should turn 
out and search for him. The usual practice of 
sportsmen coming from the East to hunt bear was 
to depend on tne guide to find the bear, to take 
the sportsman up to it, and then allow the sports- 
man to do the shooting. I felt that unless the 
hunter had so much confidence in his rifle and 
himself as to be willing to tackle these bears alone, 
he had better not interfere with them. 

In those days, when traveling over the plains or 
in the mountains, a pack outfit was essential to 
comfort, its size depending on that of the party. 
Absolutely essential was an expert packer, expert 
not only in lashing the loads on the horses, but 
resourceful in repairing the outfit and skilled in 
passing over difficult points of the mountains or 
in getting around or over snowdrifts. In these 
regards George Herendeen was a first-class man, 
and he was not at all afraid of a bear. 

The bear killed on this occasion had more vital- 
ity than any I ever encountered and was the 
fiercest. In his last struggles, he still endeavored 
to get across the gulch. To kill him required six 
bullets from a high-powered rifle loaded with io6 

177 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

grains of C. & H. No. 6 powder, with 340 grains 
express bullet. During the season of 1881, with a 
rifle of similar power, I killed twenty-three grizzly 
bears, seventeen of which were killed with a single 
ball. Into this bear only one satisfactory shot was 
fired, the fourth, at the time when the dog led him 
by me. Most of the shots were fired from the 
shoulder and during the excitement of the scrim- 
mage. The dog noi doubt saved me very serious 
complications, and was the hero of the day. 

We remained at this camp until November 12, 
when the signs showed that winter was at hand. 
Black-tail deer had ceased passing along their run- 
way. Other game had become scarce. Flour and 
other cereals were about exhausted, and snow was 
accumulating until it had become sixteen inches 
deep on the level. The feed for seven or eight 
head of horses was becoming scarce, and our fresh 
meat had given out. These accumulated reasons 
led us toi break camp on this day, and to move 
down to get out of the mountains. That morning 
we had but a single baking of flour and no fresh 
meat. 

When we reached the main stream below, we 
found just in front an abundance of meat — a band 
of about a hundred and fifty elk. Our five pack 
animals were so heavily loaded that it, was difficult 

178 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

to find a place for anything more. The eight 
bear skins had taken the place of all the food con- 
sumed since crossing the mountains. The valley 
of the river was narrow, not more than two hun- 
dred yards from the abrupt mountainside to the 
ice-bound river. We determined to approach the 
band quietly, get them started down the stream 
and gently urge them ahead of us until near the 
next camp, when we would kill one. 

But "the best laid schemes o' mice and men 
gang aft agley." The elk preferred to go in an- 
other direction. As we approached them, one- 
half of the band began to climb the mountainside 
to the right, while the others had huddled together 
In the bottom and seemed undetermined what 
direction tO' take. We were traveling in the usual 
fashion. I was In the lead, followed by the packs 
in single file, while George and the camp-keeper, 
Erickson, followed behind, pushing along the 
pack animals, and seeing that their loads were 
riding well. 

As we approached the elk, they became very 
uneasy, and showed no disposition tO' keep quietly 
ahead of us, down to the next camp. When we 
had approached still nearer, they began to attempt 
to pass us on the right, close to the mountain. I 
galloped In that direction to head them off, and 

179 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

did not realize that the packs were following me. 
The elk doubled back, however, dashed by me like 
a whirlwind, passed through and among the pack 
horses, and swept them along in the general stam- 
pede. It was so sudden that at first we scarcely 
realized the extent of the misfortune. All we pos- 
sessed was in those packs, and there was no telling 
what loss might result from their being scattered 
about among the sage brush. We soon overtook 
old "Red," one of the pack horses that was par- 
tially blind, and on this account afraid to go fast. 
We felt sure that Elk Creek, then covered with 
ice, which was a mile behind us, would stop them, 
but it did not do so, for they had crossed the fifty 
yards of smooth ice without falling, and were now 
standing exhausted only a short distance beyond. 
Herendeen at once examined the packs, and 
strangely enough found very few things missing. 
Only two of the packs had to be relashed. 

In all my experience of life in the Northwest, I 
have never heard of a similar incident. These 
horses were not frightened, but were just carried 
away by the excitement caused by the rush of the 
elks. I have heard of horses being carried along 
for days by a rushing band of buffalo, but in that 
case they probably could not help themselves. 

We were soon in good shape, and made a good 
i8o 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

drive, passing down almost beyond the snow, 
thqugh the greater part of the day's travel was 
through snow sixteen inches deep. 

By noon of the following day we reached the 
point of the mountains just above the junction of 
the north and south forks of the Stinking River. 
Except for sugar, coffee, tea and dried fruit, we 
were pretty well out of food. We had been told 
that in this basin there were two ranches, the Car- 
ter Ranch and the Belknap Ranch, and these two 
cattle men during the past summer had each 
brought in about a thousand head of cows. I had 
known Captain Belknap well, for at the battle of 
Murfreesboro, or Stone River, he was a captain of 
the 1 8th U. S. Infantry, and I had no doubt that 
at his place I could get feur enough to last until 
we reached the Crow Agency, near the Yellow- 
stone. Near the camp, therefore, we climbed a 
point of a mountain above the forks, high enough 
to get a view of the basin before us, and after 
carefully inspecting the landscape with field glasses, 
its curving smoke showed us a lone cabin three or 
four miles distant. We moved a few miles in 
that direction and camped in the brush on the 
bank of the south fork. I went on to the lone 
cabin and found there Dr. "Carter, then manager 
of the Carter Cattle Company, whose herd had 

i8i 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

been driven into the basin the summer before. He 
was a very inteUigent, companionable and hospit- 
able man, who, when he learned of the situation, 
at once supplied my immediate wants in flour and 
fresh meat. In those days flour and such things 
must be brought two hundred and fifty or three 
hundred miles over two mountain ranges, carried 
a part of the way on pack horses, in quantities suf- 
ficient for a year's supply. It is apparent there- 
fore how precious it became. I was later able to 
return the supply received from Captain Carter 
from flour loaned me by Captain Belknap, whose 
ranch was located on the same stream, ten miles 
above, under charge of John Dyer. 

For some days we were detained at this camp 
by a cold snap, the mercury going down to 32 
degrees below zero, but on November 22 it had 
grown warmer, and we broke camp and started 
for our winter quarters at Bozeman. We crossed 
the south fork on the ice, passed around Cedar 
Mountain, opposite a lower carion of the Stinking 
Water, forded the stream by an Indian lodge pole 
trail just below the caiion and camped on a small 
creek a few miles beyond. Above this camp the 
ice on each fork of the stream was at least a foot 
thick. The canon is about eight miles in length 
with a fall of at least a hundred feet. The walls 

182 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

are almost vertical, and the canon cannot be passed 
through by man except on foot. On the trail 
crossing below the caiion there was no fringe of 
Ice along the shore, but there was an all-pervading 
smell of sulphuretted hydrogen that was unmis- 
takable. 

From this camp we traveled by the most direct 
route possible — remembering the bad snowdrifts 
— on the usual trail. Fifteen days' steady march- 
ing — between November 23 and December 12 — 
brought us at last to Bozeman. On the Rocky 
Fork we stopped one day to get a supply of fresh 
meat, while extremely cold weather caused a delay 
of six days at the Agency of the Crow Indians on 
Rosebud River. This cold snap culminated in the 
low temperature of 40 degrees below zero, and 
during its continuance we laid up in some willow 
thickets, where there was an abundance of good 
firewood. During the middle of the day the sun 
had a powerful effect in modifying the cold. We 
were all provided with suitable wrappings, and 
none of us suffered materially. At night our pro- 
tection was a wall tent 12x14 feet, with a water- 
proof tarpaulin floor and robes and blankets suf- 
ficient. My bed was a fur-lined sleeping bag. A 
well designed sheet-iron stove kept the tent warm 
and comfortable. 

183 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

At the point of one mountain the road was 
blocked by deep snowdrifts, and we left it to pass 
over high benches below, where at that time the 
snow was twelve inches deep. It took us eight 
days to go from Crow Agency to Bozeman, and 
owing to the snowdrifts on the direct trail, we fol- 
lowed the Yellowstone River and crossed it three 
times. 

At the date when these notes are transcribed, 
August 25, 1908, there is being constructed at the 
upper end of the Stinking Water Cafion, by the 
U. S. Reclamation Service, the highest dam in 
the world. It is 307 feet high, and its purpose 
is to impound the waters of this remarkable moun- 
tain stream for irrigation purposes. The cost of 
this dam, built of concrete, with the necessary 
ditches and tunnels leading from it, will be from 
four to five millions of dollars. Along the valley 
of the stream there has been constructed by the 
Government the first-class road with all bridges 
needed for tourists. 

Near the locality where the elk carried away our 
horses, at the mouth of Elk Horn Fork, is an 
important hotel called Wapiti, and just below the 
caiion is the town of Cody at the end of a branch 
road of the Burlington system of railroads. Near 
the point of the mountain where snowdrifts 

184 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

obliged us to leave the road, is the present coal 
mining town of Red Lodge, a prosperous young 
city of five thousand inhabitants. 



i8s 



1 881 

In the spring of 1881 I determined to spend the 
summer and fall of that year among the mountains 
bordering the Big Horn Basin on the west, be- 
tween Clark's Fork and the Grey Bull River. I 
wished also to get into the field as soon as the 
grass was sufficiently advanced to^ support the 
horses. Though desirous of retaining the services 
of George Herendeen for the season, I was unable 
to do SO'. He was an expert packer, resourceful 
and reliable in every way, and I regretted his loss. 

However, I secured two excellent old-timers, 
each an expert packer, wholly reliable and full of 
resource. These were T. Elwood Hofer, as packer 
and horse wrangler, and Te Grand Corey, as camp- 
keeper. Hofer was of Swiss ancestry, educated 
and reliable, and was destined in after years to 
make an honorable record in the service of the 
Government. Corey was remarkable for his skill 
with tools and his readiness of resource in all the 
emergencies of mountain life. During this trip 
the stock of my rifle was broken short off at the 

186 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

pistol grip, and with a few pieces of brass, He re- 
paired the old stock sufficiently for use, and within 
a few days, from a pine stump and with a few camp 
tools, had made and fitted on a stock which I used 
for the remainder of the season. 

Besides these, I had two other camp compan- 
ions, Nip, my constant associate during the season 
of 1880, and Tuck, a half-grown pup of nonde- 
script breed, which, under Nip's tutelage, I hoped 
would become useful. Nip had been given me by 
Jack Smith, of Bozeman, and was a cross between 
a Scotch terrier and a collie. He had been reared 
by a man who had hunted bears and had already 
learned much about their habits. He was not 
afraid of any grizzly that wore hair, but knew 
enough of their habits, and had sufficient activity, 
to keep out of the reach of their teeth and claws. 

We crossed the Yellowstone May 5, swimming 
the horses at Benson's Landing, and crossing the 
baggage and men on a ferry. We went up to the 
edge of the mountains on Mission Creek, and soon 
after crossing, Hofer killed an elk for meat. In 
place of his own rifle, Hofer was carrying one of 
mine — a .40-90 Sharps business rifle. I had fur- 
nished 225-grain hollow-pointed ball. The car- 
tridges were loaded with 100 grains C. & H. 
powder. At short range the effect of this bullet 

187 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

was apparently as killing as my .45-caliber. The 
elk was killed with one shot in the lungs, the base 
of the bullet lodging against the ribs of the side 
opposite to where it entered. 

From that time until June 15, I hunted along 
the foothills of the mountains bordering the Yel- 
lowstone Valley on the south as far east as Clark's 
Fork of the Yellowstone, a distance of about 
seventy-five miles. Though we did not find many 
bears, we had a very pleasant time, and greatly 
enjoyed the freedom from the confinement of 
winter quarters in a Montana climate. 

The weather was pleasant, considering that it 
was spring. Enough deer were found to supply us 
with fresh meat, and a few days after crossing the 
river a grizzly was killed, from which was ren- 
dered sufficient fat to furnish us with lard for 
some time. Lard rendered from bear fat is much 
superior to that from hog fat, being whiter and 
more digestible. 

From the Yellowstone to Clark's Fork the route 
lay through the reservation of the Crow Indians 
At that time no white man was allowed on the 
Indian reservation without the consent of the 
agent. Though little heed was paid to this law, 
yet in passing through the reservations I always 
asked permission of the agent, believing this cour- 

188 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

tesy due him. Though sometimes visited by In- 
dians, I was never troubled by them. When in 
the camp at meal time, they were fed, but at no 
time were their visits annoying. In fact, they 
always treated me with respect, partly, perhaps, 
on account of my reputation as a bear hunter. A 
singular superstition prevails among the Indians 
in regard to bear.^* Knowing that the skin of this 
animal is difficult to render soft and pliable, and 
that the Indians were skillful in dressing all kinds 
of skins, I made an effort to have some bear hides 
tanned by these Indians. I then learned that they 
could not be induced to touch the skins, nor would 
they eat the flesh. 

In the latter part of June, just before the noon 
meal, a small party of Crow Indians appeared at 
camp. One of them was the son of a Crow named 
Little Face, whom I had several times met. Hofer 
and Corey, who could talk good Crow and make a 
few signs, learned that the son of Little Face had 
just married, and was now on his bridal trip. It 
was therefore decided to give the party a meal of 
fat elk, dried fruit and whatever luxuries the camp 
afforded. Since in mountain life there are no 
rooms to which guests may be Invited, and the only 
living room is around the camp-fire under the 
broad canopy of heaven, all gathered there and 

189 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

watched the cook beginning the operations of the 
meal. As time passed, the Indians talked pleas- 
antly among themselves. They were evidently 
hungry and were gratified at the prospect of break- 
ing their fast. The various cooking operations 
went on, the bread was baked and the fruit stewed, 
and finally came the frying of the meat, which 
would thus be steaming hot when served. 

Corey filled the frying-pan with thick slices of 
elk and an abundance of bear lard, and from over 
the fire an aroma grateful to a hungry man began 
to rise. This odor soon attracted the attention of 
the Indians, whose countenances, after some little 
talk, seemed to express despair, a combination oi 
grief at the loss of their dinner and of dread oi 
some impending evil. As they talked they became 
more and more excited, until at last they arose as 
If to go away, and of this an explanation was 
asked. With some difficulty and the help of many 
signs, we were given to understand that the cause 
of this change of feeling was the smell of the bear 
lard. They could not — dared not^ — eat anything 
cooked in bear's grease, and were about to go 
away. They had detected the dreaded odor at 
once. We explained to them that we knew nothing 
of their belief, and it they would wait for a little 
time, meat would be cooked for them uncontam- 

190 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

inated. As they were hungry, they readily con- 
sented to wait. Corey then made for them a "dry 
fry," and they fell to and seemed greatly to enjoy 
their meal. The bridegroom and his friends 
seemed grateful that their feelings had been re- 
spected, and that they had not lost their anticipated 
feast. That a hungry Indian should refuse to par- 
take of an attractive feast merely because a certain 
ingredient is used in its preparation, shows that 
some deep-seated religious or superstitious belief 
controls him. 

Major Pease, of Bozeman, Montana, was long 
the Indian agent of the Crow Indians. He once 
stated to me, in answer to an inquiry, that from 
all he could learn there was an old well-defined 
tradition of the Crows that they were descended 
from the grizzly bear, hence the superstition. 

On June 1 5 we had come to within a few miles 
of Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone, and camped 
on a fine trout stream called Moose Creek.^^ It 
was necessary to raft our property across this 
stream, which was high from the melting snows of 
the mountains, and a raft was constructed in a 
situation suitable for poling it into the current and 
drifting with it to a suitable landing point on the 
opposite shore. I shall describe the building of the 
raft and the manner of drifting it to the opposite 

igi 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

shore in the diary of 1882. When the raft was 
ready, the baggage was carried from camp and 
thrown on the ground before being loaded and 
lashed down on the raft. Just then on our trail 
and behind us appeared a party of from fifteen to 
twenty mounted men, and as they approached, they 
were seen to be Indians — men and women. One 
of the principal men, conspicuous by the size of his 
headdress, appeared, on nearer approach, to be a 
black man, a full-blooded African. It was a party 
of Crows on the way to visit the Shoshoni Indians 
at Fort Washaki Agency. The black man, as we 
afterward learned, was a Missouri negro, adopted 
into the Crow nation. He had a wife and a skin 
lodge, and his dress was that of an Indian. As the 
party reached us. Smoky, for soi he was called, 
came straight up to where I was standing, and 
with the utmost assurance said, "Boss, give me a 
chew of tobacco." Smoky's manner and words 
recalled happy years, both as child and adult, of 
long association with that kindly race. If I had 
possessed a hogshead of tobacco it would have been 
freely dumped at his feet, but as I was not a user 
of the weed, his appeal was in vain. 

I was recalled to the present by a glance at the 
angry stream. To the chief of the party I pointed 
out the raft we had fashioned, and offered it for 

192 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

the use of his people after we had crossed. He 
looked at it with some attention, and then, as an 
expression of contempt spread over his face, he 
uttered the words "no' good." He then sent off 
some young men to try a ford at the mouth of Pat 
O'Hara Creek, a few miles below, and thinking 
it worth while to take advantage of the Indian's 
experimenting, we awaited the return of the party. 
When they came back, Smoky, who was with them, 
reported a good ford half-side deep tO' his pony. 
The Indians at once set out for the crossing. We 
packed up and followed them. 

When we had come within half a mile of the 
place the sight was not reassuring. The river at 
the ford seemed full of men and women, pack 
animals and loose horses all mixed up. Men and 
women swimming and yelling, and some of the 
horses swimming. 

The Indians got across with their packs, but only 
after a wetting. When we reached the bank over- 
looking the crossing, some of the women were 
spreading the contents out on the grass and wil- 
lows to dry. This showed us very plainly that we 
could not attempt to cross with the packs on the 
animals. Smoky, Hairy Moccasin and Little Face 
were preparing to take the loose horses across. A 
woman mounted on one pony was leadiag a mare 

193 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

with colt following, and when all was ready, she 
started into the water, the other horses following, 
being pushed on and urged by the Indians. Just 
before reaching the opposite bank, some of the 
mares turned back for their colts that were nick- 
ering. At once they began to mill, turning around 
and around and being carried down into deep 
water. The only thing to do was to get back again 
on the same side tO' make another trip. They 
did this three or four times, but finally gave it up, 
not crossing the horses until the next morning when 
the river was lower. The horses that the Indians 
were riding had their forelocks tied up with, a bit 
of grass to keep the hair out of their eyes, so' as not 
to interfere with their vision while in the water. 

Before returning to our raft, we sought for a 
more suitable place for starting into the water than 
the one we had stopped at. The men soon re^ 
turned, reporting a better point down below. The 
pack horses were carefully unloaded at the point 
we were to start from, the raft was launched, with 
Hofer and Corey on it, and I went to a point 
below, where I could catch a rope thrown tO' me. 
A safe landing was made, and before dark all our 
belongings had been ferried over and we were in 
a snug camp. The horses had been driven into 
the water and forced to swim across. 

194 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

From this day, June 22, to August 19, we were 
camped on and about Sheep Mountain, the eastern- 
most spur reaching out to the plains of the Sho- 
shoni group of mountains. The easternmost peak 
of this end is Heart Mountain, said to have re- 
ceived its name from the resemblance of this peak 
to a heart. It is the dividing mountain between 
the waters of Clark's Fork on the north and Stink- 
ing River on the south. 

On these mountains we had three different 
camps, the highest being at an elevation of about 
8,200 feet. On the mountains there was a large 
band of cow elk with their young and enough 
young bulls and mountain sheep to give us camp 
meat. 

Cow elk have a peculiar way of calling their 
young. The sound is made with the lips, and can 
be heard for some distance.^^ In the summer 
season the cows keep close together for protection, 
and the young bulls, then a year old the previous 
May or June, herd with the cows. The black-tail 
deer had gone further back into the mountains. 

Bears were fairly abundant, but I secured only 
two, and without adventure. Nevertheless, the 
experience with one of them is worth relating. 
In a small prairie nearby there was the carcass of 
an elk, which a grizzly soon began to visit. I 

195 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

watched it for several evenings, but the bear failed 
to put in an appearance before dark; nevertheless, 
each night the carcass was dragged nearer and 
nearer to the open timber. When it had been 
dragged far enough into the timber for my pur- 
pose, it was tied by a hindleg to the limb of a tree, 
the elk being raised high enough to keep the bear 
from cutting the rope. That night a bear, believ- 
ing that in the timber he would be safe, came to 
feed before dark. In the morning a seat had been 
arranged on the limb of a nearby pine, and as the 
bear approached, I easily killed him with a single 
shot. After skinning the bear next morning, we 
took the precaution to tie the bear carcass by the 
hindleg to the same picket rope, and as we thought, 
out of the reach of the next bear. That evening 
I took my position on the perch, watching in the 
direction of the bear's expected approach. It so 
happened that I was not sufficiently hid from sight 
by the foliage of the pine tree. At the expected 
time the bear appeared. I got a glimpse of him 
as he cautiously approached through the open 
timber. He had perhaps come within sixty yards 
when he stopped, stood on his hindlegs with his 
head concealed by a pine bough, peeping over it 
toward the bait. I could see only a part of him, 
and there was little chance to make a sure shot; 

196 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

moreover, I expected that he would come closer. 
Suddenly he dropped on all fours, gave a snort, 
turned and moved rapidly back on his trail and 
disappeared in the pine thicket. 

An inspection next morning showed that, as 
anticipated, the bear had returned, had stood up 
by the carcass of the other bear, and instead of 
cutting the rope, had cut through the bear's ham- 
string, by which it had been tied, thus freeing the 
carcass, and had dragged it about a hundred yards 
further into the timber. There he took a meal 
and then covered up the carcass, as, if the soil is 
not too rocky, bears always do. 

It was now my business to circumvent this bear. 
I at once arranged a place on a limb of the nearest 
pine, talking care, however, that the foliage should 
protect me from view from the trail by which the 
bear was expected. That evening I was on hand, 
securely hidden on my new perch. The bear ap- 
peared before dark, approaching very cautiously 
and in my full view. When within seventy-five 
yards he stopped, sat up and gazed long and 
earnestly, but his attention seemed to be directed 
to the position that I had occupied in the tree tTie 
evening before. As he stood in full view he 
seemed the embodiment of savage fury, and was 
evidently spoiling for a scrimmage. Looking 

197 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

savagely toward where I had been the night be- 
fore, he gave his mane and ears a savage flap. It 
could have been heard a hundred and fifty yards 
off, the sound being like, but much louder than, 
the sound made by an old bear when he shakes his 
head after being worried by dogs. The bear did 
not appear to think of looking anywhere except 
where he had seen me before. 

In the meantime I was cautiously getting ready 
for a shot. The distance was too great for me to 
risk a shot at the brain. Watching my chance, as 
he turned his head slightly to the left, I fired at a 
point between the shoulder blade and the neck, 
hoping possibly to smash the neckbone. If I did 
not do that, I hoped that the splash of the frag- 
ments of the express ball would cut the main 
artery in the neck. At the crack of the rifle he 
rolled over as a bear usually does on being hit, but 
without giving the peculiar bawl so' often heard, 
and which I think indicates that he is whipped. 
The bear was on his feet at once and moved back 
on the trail as rapidly as he could. I descended 
from my perch and followed him intO' the timber, 
believing from his clumsy movements as he 
scrambled off and the sign of blood left in his 
tracks, that I should soon find him in the last 
agonies. In the pine thicket it was quite dusk, and 

198 



^Memories of a Bear Hunter 

from the savage way In which the bear had acted, 
I felt that It would be dangerous business to jump 
him In the undergrowth. He soon entered some 
pretty thick pine brush, where I thought he would 
lie down. I followed him for a few hundred feet 
very cautiously. He knew he was being followed 
or else had more vitality than the nature of the 
wound indicated. It was now getting dark In the 
underbrush and I was alone. I decided to give 
him up and tO' return early the next morning and 
follow up his trail. 

Corey and I were on hand early. Corey was an 
experienced and painstaking trailer, and I had 
every confidence in him. He was in the lead, to 
enable him to follow the trail, and I was so close 
behind him that the muzzle of my rifle was often 
ahead of him. In the blood, and In the actions of 
the bear there was every evidence that he was 
badly wounded. He seemed to be bleeding Inter- 
nally. At every pine thicket we expected to stum- 
ble on him. We followed for a mile down a slop- 
ing ledge, and just in front of us a bear started up 
and made off. We did not get a glimpse of him. 
Corey followed him for a short distance, when, 
his trail going down an abrupt mountain, it was 
abandoned. Corey at once contended that this 
was another bear, and said that we must have 

199 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

passed the wounded bear in some thicket. It is 
certainly true that, after passing the place where 
the bear had spent the night, the signs of blood 
began to disappear. At any rate, we did not tind 
the wounded bear, and returned to camp after 
having spent half a day in a fruitless search. 

Four years after this incident, in July, 1885, I 
killed on the head of one of the forks of Four 
Bear Creek a large grizzly that in size, form and 
ferocity was the counterpart of the bear which 
Corey and I had followed. I was alone. At the 
first shot the bear rushed at me, crossed a deep 
ravine and was within a few jumps, when a second 
shot shattered the socket joint of his right shoulder 
so that he turned to his left and disappeared under 
a bluff. I followed rapidly, and as he turned and 
charged me, I gave him a final shot, which crushed 
the neck bone. 

On skinning that bear two bullets of 200 grains 
weight, as if shot from a Winchester .44 caliber, 
were found buried in the fleshy part of its shoulder 
and neck, and besides these were found the frag- 
ments of a .45 caliber bullet, exactly similar to the 
express bullets that I used in 1881. This ball lay 
in the muscles of the neck and shoulder. The two 
localities are only about seventy miles apart, a dis- 
tance not outside the range of the grizzly bear. I 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

have often thought that this might have been the 
same bear. The bear of 1885 indicated from his 
actions that he had been in several fights with man, 
and he did not hesitate as to what he should do. 

Up to this time my dog had been of very little 
use. Often he would break before the shot was 
fired, and I tried to correct this by thrashing him, 
but perhaps the next time after brealcing he would 
not return and would remain hidden for a week. 
The bad example that he set to the pup Tuck was 
such that he was soon spoiled and good for noth- 
ing. At one camp they were both in disgrace, and 
during several nights when they stayed out in the 
hills, the mountains rang with their yelps as they 
chased foxes and such game. Had Nip been with 
me when the bear of 1881 was wounded he would 
have followed him and brought him to bay by 
nipping at his heels. With the assistance of the 
dog I could have had a good shot that would have 
stopped the bear. 

On one occasion, when the dog was away from 
the camp, it was necessary for Hofer and Corey 
to go with the pack train for a supply of pro- 
visions sufficient to last for the next three months. 
These supplies were to have been delivered at the 
Crow Agency by bull team from Bozeman. They 
left on the 5th of August, and returned nine days 

201 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

later, on the afternoon of the 14th. I had retained 
my mare Kate, but beside her I was the only living 
thing in camp. I got along very well, however, 
reading and writing or hunting. Usually in the 
afternoon I took a ride up to the summit of the 
mountains to the south to watch the country for 
bear; usually without glasses. But one evening 
later, as I watched the southern slope of the moun- 
tain, a rifle shot was heard and an elk rushed out 
from a strip of timber. I was not at the moment 
anxious to meet either good Indian or bad white 
man, and did not try to find out who had fired the 
shot. During all my sojourn, time never hung 
heavy on my hands. 

After the boys returned, we went down from 
these mountains, intending to cross the two forks of 
Stinking River and then to follow around the foot 
of the mountains toward Grey Bull country. We 
followed down the mountain by the trail along 
Rattle Snake Creek, and on August 22 camped on 
Carter's Creek, about twO' miles above the Carter 
Ranch. Here Captain Belknap visited me. He 
had just brought into- this basin a thousand cows 
and located a ranch on the south fork. About the 
same time. Colonel Carter, from Fort Bridger, 
brought in about the same number of cattle under 
the management of his relative. Dr. Carter. 

202 




KIRGHIZ FALCONERS. 
(See page 314.) 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

At this time the only other cattleman located on 
the west side of the Big Horn Basin was Otto 
Franc. He had settled on Grey Bull River, six 
miles above the mouth of Wood River. He drove 
into the basin in 1879 several thousand head of 
cattle from the Madison Valley, Montana, going 
by a roundabout way through the South Pass of the 
Rocky Mountains. 

From August 25 to October 30 we were about 
the foothills of the mountains on the west as far 
as the point where Grey Bull River comes out on 
to the plains through its last canon, near the mouth 
of Buffalo Fork. Our principal camps were at the 
forks of the Meeteetse Creek, and on the Buffalo 
Fork, near the point where it unites with the Grey 
Bull River. On Rock Creek there were other 
camps where we remained for shorter periods. 
These two months were, on the whole, the pleas- 
antest, and from the sportsman's standpoint, the 
most successful of all the years spent among the 
Rocky Mountains. It is true, the grand scenery 
of the two previous seasons was wanting, nor was 
there the daily feeling of interest caused by behold- 
ing strange and wonderful sights, but as a mat- 
ter of fact, this grand scenery and these wonders 
of the Yellowstone had begun to pall on me. They 
no longer aroused the emotions of pleasure and 

203 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

wonder that they did when first witnessed. The 
scenes of this season were different in character. 
There were views from mountain peaks over the 
vast plains to the east, where the Yellowstone was 
bounded by peaks of the Big Horn Range, one of 
which has been said to be 12,000 feet in height. 
The weather was very pleasant. There were no 
extremes of heat and cold, such as we had faced 
the autumn before when on our return We endured 
for almost a month a temperature of from 25 to 
40 degrees below zero. The first touch of winter 
came September 4, when there were two days of 
snowstorm, leaving six inches of snow on the 
ground. 

During these two months from the camp on the 
head of Meeteetse Creek and the camp on the Grey 
Bull and from intermediate camps I killed nineteen 
grizzlies, the majority of them large, with well 
furred robes. Four grizzlies had been killed be- 
fore this, but in two cases the robes were not good 
and were not saved. Twenty-one hides were taken 
into winter quarters at Bozeman. 

By careful observation of the habits of this bear 
I had become skillful in approaching near enough 
without alarming the animal, to deliver a deliber- 
ate shot in a fatal part. Of the twenty-three bears 
killed during the season, seventeen required only a 

204 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

single shot. None of these bears gave any trouble. 
As a rule, the first shot was fatal after a little time, 
yet even though mortally wounded, some of them 
might have made good fights had they seen by 
whom the shot was delivered, but shot at from 
ambush, their first move was to get out of danger 
and to run in the direction toward which they 
happened to be headed. On the other hand, I 
have never known of an instance where, if a bear 
saw from whence the bullet came, it did not start 
directly toward the person firing the shot. In such 
event the safest course is to face the bear, deliver 
shots as fast as possible, and as a last resort use 
the rifle as a club, and endeavor to strike a blow 
on the top of the head just over the brain. In 
cases where I have been charged, I have always 
succeeded in stopping the bears when within a few 
jumps of me, and have never been within reach of 
their claws. I determined early in my experience 
that to run away from an angry bear was useless. 
One of these bears, when badly wounded, was fol- 
lowed a short distance into the brush, and when 
she turned, was given another shot. Another 
bear, badly wounded, was followed into the timber 
by my dog, which brought him to bay. Following 
the dog's bark, I found the bear in the last 
agony.^*^ 

205 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

After spending a few days at Captain Belknap's 
Ranch, I set out for my winter quarters at Boze- 
man, Montana, following around the foothills of 
the mountains. This had been a red-letter year 
as regards sport, with the most formidable savage 
beast of the Continent, the grizzly bear. I was 
anxious, however, to avoid the disagreeable inci- 
dents of the last two seasons while traveling to 
winter quarters. This year, therefore, we started 
for Bozeman about November i, crossing the 
Stinking Water on the lodge pole trail, just below 
the lower caiion. Thence we went by Crow Agency 
and Benson's Landing, reaching Bozeman De- 
cember 3, 1 88 1. The weather was pleasant, the 
direct route had not yet been obstructed by snow, 
and the journey was unmarked by any special 
incident. 



206 



1882 

The winter of 1 88 1-2 was pleasantly spent at 
Bozeman. At that prosperous mountain town 
there were three churches and a fine population of 
intelligent, broad-minded people, among whom I 
had many friends and congenial associates. 

For the following summer I had determined to 
make a trip intO' northern Wyoming on the head 
of Grey Bull River, a country which during the 
season of 1881 I had found wholly free from the 
contaminating influences of the white man. I had 
with me Le Grand Corey as packer, and Heyford 
as camp-keeper and cook. Corey had been with 
me the year before with T. E. Hofer, a first-class 
man in every respect for the mountains or the 
plains, whom I could not secure for this trip. 

After crossing the Bridger Mountains, just east 
of Fort Ellis, we went on tO' the Yellowstone River, 
crossing it at Benson's Landing, From there the 
route lay across the foothills of the mountains, 
following the Yellowstone River to the crossing 
of Clark's Fork, thence to the Stinking Water, and 

207 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

across that stream to the headwaters of the Grey 
Bull. We reached Benson's Landing about May 
20, 1882, and the crossing of Clark's Fork about 
June 15. At different points we stopped for fresh 
meat and for bears, but killed only one or two of 
the latter, and met with no special adventures. 
Clark's Fork was booming from the melting snow, 
and there seemed no prospect of fording it for a 
month. The only way to cross was by raft. 

With this in mind, a still place was found just 
behind a little island, where the raft was to be 
built. Just below the island the current hugged 
the shore on which we then were. By using poles 
for a short distance, the raft could easily be pushed 
into the current. A little below this, the main 
current crossed the stream to the other side, and 
about 150 yards further down, the current hugged 
that bank so closely that a man might scramble to 
shore with a rope and hold the raft until it could 
be secured. All these matters had to be foreseen 
and considered before constructing the raft. The 
weight of the outfit to be floated was fully 1,200 
pounds, and it was therefore necessary tO' find the 
required dead logs up the river, to snake them to 
the water by the saddle horn and float them down 
to the place where the raft was to be built. The 
logs must then be lashed together with picket ropes, 

208 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

a platform arranged on top to store the bulky 
baggage, and finally the things secured so that no 
accident would tend to loosen or throw them over- 
board. The whole work occupied four or five 
days' time. When everything was ready, an early 
start was made, the baggage was carried to the 
raft and securely lashed on it. Its flotation seemed 
sufficient. 

The next move was to^ get the horses across 
ahead of us. They seemed to know what was 
expected of them, for they took readily tO' the ice 
cold water and swam across. We were now obliged 
to cross over or else lose our horses. The raft was 
pulled into the current, which swiftly carried it 
downstream and across. Our forecast was real- 
ized, someone jumped ashore at the critical time 
and the raft was securely fastened. For a short 
time there seemed a little danger that the raft 
might pull away, but its resistance was overcome, 
and presently it was securely tied up, and we had 
the satisfaction of once more being on terra firma, 
with all our belongings safe. 

The Stinking River, which was the next large 
stream, was wider and carried a greater volume of 
water than Clark's Fork, and I was unwilling to 
attempt to raft across it. We therefore remained 
longer on the mountains just north of that stream 

209 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

than originally intended, soi as to allow the water 
to flow off and the stream to become fordable. I 
killed one or two bears in these mountains and the 
elk furnished an abundance of meat. 

We crossed the Stinking Water on July 12, and 
camped for some time near its forks, awaiting the 
arrival of mail expected from Fort Washakie. 

At this camp I found a spring flowing with 
water very similar in taste to the famous Saratoga 
water. It was on the south side of the river, just 
above the entrance to the lower canon of the 
stream. In the sand a hole was scooped out, a 
foot and a half deep and about six long, which 
soon filled with this water — slightly milky in color. 
Bubbles of air came up through the spring and 
also through the water of the river along its shal- 
low edges. The water was delightful in taste and 
very pleasant to drink. In later years when I 
visited this locality, the spring had been filled up 
by sand during the overflowing of the river, and 
no trace of it was found. 

From the loth to the 29th of August we were 
on the head of Meeteetse Creek, whence we crossed 
over to upper Wood River, and from there as- 
cended the high plateau opposite the camp occu- 
pied for several weeks in the season of 1881, where 
I was successful in securing bears. We crossed 

210 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

Franc's Creek and ascended the mountainside, the 
slope being gradual until we had come within a 
quarter of a mile of the rim-rock. From that point 
the ascent was up along an elk trail full of boulders 
to the top of the rim-rock, where the country 
opened out into rolling open mountain benches that 
could be traversed on horseback. The rim-rock, 
seen about many of these mountains, was from 
fifty to a hundred feet in vertical face and at an 
elevation of about 8,500 feet above tide. It could 
be surmounted by horses only at a few points, this 
elk trail being one. From the plateau the trail 
dropped down into the valley of Willow Creek. We 
followed the trail nearly toi the stream's head, and 
camped at a spring. The horses had had a hard 
climb and we needed meat. We therefore camped 
early, thinking that we would get our meat that 
afternoon, and the following day would examine 
the mountains for a permanent camp. It was now 
August 23, and storms might be expected at any 
time. Corey and I went hunting in the afternoon, 
I to look for sheep in the mountains east of the 
camp, while he went toi the southward for elk. I 
saw two fat rams, but had no opportunity for a 
sure shot; but Corey had stumbled on a band of 
elk about two miles above camp, and had killed a 
fat bull with a splendid set of horns. 

211 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

The next morning we set out to bring in a good 
supply of meat, taking with us a set of ice scales 
used for weighing our animals, where this was de- 
sirable. My diary of that date says : 

"Go with the scales to weigh bull elk. After 
being drawn (all inside viscera removed since last 
evening) he weighs 830 pounds. I meet with a 
serious accident this morning. In helping tO' lift 
the elk around, jammed my right leg against the 
sharp tine of the elk horn. It penetrated the mus^- 
cular part of my leg just below the knee on right of 
bone, one inch deep and one and a half inches long. 
Rode to camp and applied cold water, after closing 
the wound with sticking plaster. Swollen a good 
deal in the evening." 

That note tells the story. The scales could not 
weigh the animal until he was cut into four or five 
parts. In assisting to weigh one of the pieces, my 
right leg was jammed against a small tine of the 
elk horn. The matter appeared to me very seri- 
ous. In two cases in early life neglect of just such 
hurts — or of wounds of a less serious nature^ — had 
caused a local erysipelas that lasted three months 
on one occasion. The nearest surgeon and hospital 
was at Fort Washakie, a hundred and fifty miles 
tO' the south. The nearest haven was Fort Ellis, 
near Bozeman, three hundred miles to the north. 

212 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

Neither place could be reached, except on horse- 
back. I knew that with such a wound it would be 
impossible for me to travel on horseback to either 
of these army posts. That night after supper we 
held a council of war. I expressed the opinion that 
it would be a month before it would be safe for 
me to travel much. We had plenty of food, the 
weather was still splendid, and I thought the safest 
plan was to stand pat and await developments. 
The boys cheerfully acquiesced, and I knew they 
would stick by me. Immediately on returning to 
camp, I began to make use of experiences of the 
Civil War. Near the camp there was a snowbank 
left from last winter. The boys brought a bucket 
of snow and bound this to the wound. Snow was 
kept on It all night, and with good effect. 

It was obvious that our camp must be made as 
comfortable as circumstances permitted, since bad 
weather might come at any time. Corey's first 
work was to make me a pair of crutches. Then 
the boys made a splendid spring mattress out of 
small pine poles and the boughs of evergreens. We 
were soon perfectly comfortable. My tent, 
12x14, with four- foot walls, a tarpaulin for a 
floor and a well tested camp stove, was a com- 
fortable home, a good eating place and a sitting 
room for the party. The boys had a small A 

213 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

tent. We made one mistake. The camp should 
at once have been moved up into a pine grove just 
to the rear as a protection against the strong west 
winds, to which we were exposed. This had not 
then been learned. There was a spring of pure 
water within fifty yards of the tents. 

My crutches reminded me of the accident of 
Christmas, 1879, when my mare slipped on the 
ice and fell, catching and crushing my right foot. 
I had lively recollections of the difficulties and 
discomforts that followed that occasion. 

By continued applications of ice and ice-cold 
water, inflammation of the wound in my leg was 
kept down and it continued to- improve; but it was 
not until Sept. 22 that I made an effort to go back 
to the old life. In the meantime a number of 
things took place. As soon as we had finished 
putting our camp in order, Corey one evening 
went over to the elk carcass. He returned before 
dark, reporting that he had killed an old grizzly 
bear and two' cubs. Then it was that I realized 
my helpless condition, and chafed under the re- 
straint. The next day he brought in the three 
skins. Not long after came the whistling time of 
the elk. One night a bull announced his presence 
only a few hundred yards above camp. Corey 
slipped out and killed it, reporting it good and 

214 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

fat. The best parts of the bull were hung up. 
Corey trapped a little and caught several coyotes 
and foxes at this bait. About ten days later an- 
other bull was killed just across Willow Creek, a 
quarter of a mile from camp. His flesh was not 
good. Early in September we had snowstorms 
with fierce westerly winds, and soon the snow ac- 
cumulated and began to form drifts. Meantime 
we were without news of the outside world. At 
this time there were only four cattlemen in the Big 
Horn Basin, but during this summer we united and 
employed Josh Dean — still living — at $50 a month 
to bring out our mail once a month from the near- 
est post-office. Mine at this time was delivered at 
Otto Franc's ranch, ten or twelve miles distant, and 
one of the men used to go for it, taking with him 
all outgoing letters. 

Sept. 22 Corey set out with the mail. That 
night an animal was heard squalling at the elk bait 
across Willow Creek. At breakfast I suggested tO' 
Heyford that he take his rifle, go out and get the 
fox and bring the skin to camp and tack it down 
to dry. After breakfast, the fox still keeping at 
this noise, Heyford started off with the rifle and a 
skinning knife. He had newly come into the West, 
had never seen a bear and had no desire to do so. 
He soon returned to the camp somewhat excited, 

215 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

and reported that Instead of a fox, It was a cub 
bear In the trap. The mother was rooting around 
nearby, and though she saw him, did not seem 
afraid. I felt that I must do something. For some 
time I had been Improving, until now I was hob- 
bling around on one crutch and one stick. The 
more I thought of the neighborhood of the bear 
the stronger I felt, and finally I proposed to 
Heyford that If he would carry my rifle, we would 
go out and see the bear. I supposed that the old 
one would remain with her cub, and we took no 
pains to conceal our approach. She must have dis- 
covered It, for when I hobbled up In sight of the 
place where Heyford had left her, she had dis- 
appeared. Higher up the mountain I saw peeping 
over a rise in the ground a dark spot, which proved 
to be the old bear, which had ignomlniously de- 
serted her cub, still In the trap. Heyford killed 
and skinned the cub, and we returned to camp. 
The exercise of the forenoon had not been injuri- 
ous to my leg; in fact, I felt better. That night 
Corey returned with a good mail. It Is said that 
troubles generally come In pairs, and something 
that happened a day or two later tends tO' substan- 
tiate the truth of this saying. The second day 
after I started out for the bear, I ventured on my 
first ride over the mountains to the west, Into the 

216 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

valley of a large creek, afterward named Jack 
Creek. We came on two mountain sheep, one of 
which I killed. 

I had enjoyed the ride so much that, in the 
afternoon, I returned with the boys for the meat, 
and after it was lashed on the pack horse, I went 
further up the valley at the base of the mountain, 
telling the boys that I would return by another 
pass. Fifteen or twenty minutes after parting, it 
became necessary to cross a small brooklet, the bed 
of which was boggy, as in these mountains is often 
the case. The distance across the wide place was 
only ten or twelve feel. Trusting the mud was not 
too deep, I rode Kate in, and she was soon up 
to her belly in soft mud. As she floundered about 
trying to extricate herself, she fell over on her right 
side with her body and back downstream, catching 
my right leg under her. Fortunately there were no 
boulders, and the soft mud was so deep that my 
thigh was pressed down into the mire without seri- 
ous injury, but my person, up to the hips, was deep 
in the mud. As the mare lay, her body was much 
lower than her feet, which made it more difficult 
for her tO' extricate herself. After struggling 
awhile, I spoke to her and she quieted down. I 
placed my left foot, then free, against the horn of 
the saddle and pressed against it with all my force. 

217 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

This partly righted the mare. I spoke to her, she 
gave a few struggles, and regained her feet. I 
followed her lead, scrambled out of the mud, and 
soon had the mare on solid ground. 

This suggests one of the dangers of solitary 
travel in the mountains. Had this accident broken 
an arm, or had I been in any way disabled, I might 
have lain there all night. The boys would not 
have suspected anything wrong before dark, and 
in the darkness might not have been able tO' find 
me. The nights were then cold, ten or twelve de- 
grees above zero. I considered myself fortunate 
to have escaped as I did, and continued my ride, 
reaching camp at dark. 

In the morning the inside of my thigh was some- 
what bruised, but several days' rest in camp re- 
stored it to its normal condition. I was still care- 
ful of my injured leg, walking about camp with 
one crutch and a cane. 

We had not forgotten the old bear. A short 
time after the last incident Corey, when he visited 
his traps one morning, found one of them missing. 
Further signs of a cub bear were to be seen, and 
the chain fastening the trap had been broken. He 
naturally suspected the old bear. Two or three 
nights afterward the jingling of a chain was heard 
in the direction of the bait across Willow Creek, 

218 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

and we felt sure that the old she bear was there, 
the cub carrying around the trap, which the old 
bear had broken loose at an earlier visit. Telling 
Corey to carry my rifle, I hobbled after him with 
crutch and stick. We approached with much cau- 
tion, following down the streamlet which flowed 
by the camp tO' its mouth, and thence under cover 
of a bank, following up a swale on the opposite 
side of Willow Creek, intending to get behind 
the carcass, where the bears were supposed to be. 
Nevertheless, in some mysterious way, the bear 
had received a hint of our movements, for after 
climbing high enough to look over the ground, 
there was nothing in sight. It was bright moon- 
light. 

Above us in the direction of the pass over the 
mountain which bear used, there was a plain sound 
of iron being dragged over boulders. Corey at 
once gave me my rifle, and rapidly followed the 
sound, while I stopped behind to await develop- 
ments. In half an hour he returned rather hur- 
riedly, and reported that after following the cub 
and going nearly to the top of the pass, he had 
come SO' close to the cub as to make a rush for it 
to try and secure his trap. However, the old bear 
was on the watch on the mountainside above and 
to the right, and she made a dash for Corey. 

219 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Corey stood not on the order of his going, but 
went at once. As soon as the old bear got between 
her cub and danger she stopped, but Corey did 
not stop. 

The next day Corey scouted around the patch 
of timber where he beheved the bear remained in 
the daytime, and thought he heard the jingling 
of the chain as the cub moved about. He did 
not think it prudent to investigate. The second 
evening after that, about 9 o'clock, with a bright 
moon, a squall very similar tO' that of the cub 
came from the direction of the elk carcass, and we 
determined to investigate. Binding a wad of white 
tissue paper on the end of the rifle barrel, Corey 
and I started to see what was the matter, he, as 
before, carrying my rifle and I walking on a crutch. 
After we reached Willow Creek, we went up that 
stream about a hundred yards, and then climbed 
the bench toward the bait in a direction opposite 
to that taken on the previous occasion. When 
high enough up to obtain a view, there was the old 
bear quietly feeding and the cub squalling by her 
side. Getting my cartridges ready, I moved in 
a stooping position, until I had reached a place 
where I had an unobstructed shot, and dropping 
to my knee, was ready to fire. The cub saw us 
first, telling the old bear. She turned with her 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

right side exposed, and the shot was aimed care- 
fully. 

"Here she comes," hoarsely whispered Corey. 
I fired a second shot, and still she rushed on. Then 
Corey fired, giving her a desperate wound. Still 
she rushed onward, and when within a few jumps I 
fired a final shot. It did not stop her, but she 
turned to the left, down hill, stumbled along for a 
little way, fell and soon was still. She was twelve 
steps from us as she lay. 

Next morning, measuring the ground from the 
elk carcass to the pile of shells, the distance proved 
to be forty-seven yards. Examination of the bear 
showed that every shot hit about the center of the 
mass as the animal approached. Corey's shot, with 
a light bullet, was an excellent one, and penetrated 
deeply. After a little time the first shot would 
have killed. Considering the moonlight and the 
somewhat exciting surroundings, it was first-class 
practice. 

After dressing the bear, we were puzzled to 
know what to do with the cub. Corey, who was 
wearing his leather shaps, and so did not fear 
teeth or claws, walked up to the little animal, 
which, as soon as he was within reach, rushed 
savagely at him, seized him by the legs and clawed 
most energetically, but the leather was too thick. 

221 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

He kicked the little bear off and was obliged to 
club him into something like submission, but the 
animal manifested so much life and innate sav- 
agery, that we determined to save him and try to 
bring him in alive. With some trouble, the chain 
was loosened from the stub to which it had become 
fastened, and with much pulling and some pound- 
ing he was brought to camp and tied to a sapling, 
where there was a good bed. All through the 
night, at short intervals, the cub kept up his mourn- 
ful, heartbreaking wails, which sounded some- 
thing like the cry of a child, but were a little 
hoarser. I began to feel sorry for the cub, even 
though its mother had tried her best to gobble us 
up. I even asked myself why Corey had beaten 
that cub so hard. Next morning we went to the 
cub to offer him some fat elk meat. Our kindly 
intentions were not appreciated, and there gleamed 
a savage light from his eyes. He rushed at Corey, 
seized his leg, scratching and gnawing at the 
leather shaps as viciously as last night. I felt that 
he needed nO' sympathy. He ate his breakfast 
greedily, which confirmed that view. 

When the robe — a very fine one — ^was brought 
in, Corey thoughtlessly threw it to the cub, which 
recognized it and gave a distressing exhibition of 
affection. 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

My injured leg had now so much improved that 
I decided to trust it. Besides, snow was falling, 
the temperature getting lower, snowdrifts were 
becoming deeper, winter was approaching. It was 
time to seek a lower altitude. It was now the first 
day of October, and we had been here since August 
23. It was not a good camp, exposed as it was 
to westerly winds and the drifting snow. We 
determined therefore to go down the mountains, 
making the first camp at the spot near the Grey 
Bull, at the mouth of Buffalo Fork, where we 
were in camp for several weeks the year before. 
This was the camp from which I had killed nine- 
teen grizzlies within a month. 

As I could be of little assistance in packing, I 
left ahead of the packs, intending to watch a cer- 
tain point near the new camp for a bear. I reached 
the Grey Bull, found the site of the old camp, and 
at the proper time went to the mouth of Jack Creek 
to look for the bear. He did not appear before 
dark, and I returned to camp, built a big fire and 
awaited the arrival of the outfit. It was not until 
about 9 o'clock that I heard shouts across the creek, 
and soon after, the outfit crossed at a ford, and we 
were co-mfortably in camp. Corey reported that 
when they started he was unable to put the cub on 
the packs and that he had finally set it free. I 

223 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

was greatly pleased that he had done so, for the 
cub would have been a great care and trouble, even 
if we could have taken it to civilization. I felt no 
concern for the cub's welfare this winter, for there 
were three elk carcasses on which it could fatten 
until the time came for it to "hole up." If these 
were not enough, there was the old bear on which 
it might feed, since bears readily eat other bears. 

The bear that I looked for at the mouth of Jack 
Creek was likely to visit that bait late at night, and 
I determined to track him to his den in the snow. 
In this I was unsuccessful. Several places were 
found where there were fresh signs of his having 
laid up during the day, but in no' case was he at 
home, and after an ineffectual half day's work 
endeavoring to find him, I gave it up. 

I was so much discouraged at the outlook here 
that I determined to close the campaign and at 
once seek winter quarters. The trail close to the 
mountains was too deeply covered with snow to be 
followed, and I chose one lower down. The first 
camp was made six or seven miles below, close to 
the river bank. In front was a meadow with a 
spring at the foot of the bench. On the left, just 
behind the camp, was a cottonwood grove, backed 
by a dense willow thicket. Above the thicket was 
another larger meadow with two bold springs. I 

224 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

was so impressed with the situation that I selected 
it for a ranch to be entered under the land laws as 
a pre-emption claim. I made arrangements with 
Corey to build for me during the winter a cabin of 
suitable size with three rooms. The buildings 
were constructed during the following winter and 
spring, and, with improvements made later, be- 
came my residence until the fall of 1904. 

About this time the track of the Northern 
Pncific Railroad had reached the present town of 
Billings, Montana, and I determined to make for 
that point and to decide later on winter quarters. 
We set out therefore for Billings, and on October 
30 reached a camp near the ranch of J. Bradley 
on the North Fork of Stinking River. This camp 
is just above the cafion of this stream, where is 
now being erected (September, 1908) a dam 307 
feet in height, which will overflow much of this 
country. I arranged with J. Bradley to take me 
with my baggage to Billings in his wagon, leav- 
ing my pack outfit, horses and all other property 
at his ranch. I also arranged that he should meet 
me at Billings in the spring and bring me out to 
my ranch on the Grey Bull. I arranged with 
Corey to take care of my horses and packs for the 
winter. Corey and Heyford were tO' go to Bill- 
ings on horseback and to be paid off there. We 

225 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

left the ranch October 31, crossed the divide by the 
Heart Mountain Pass to Pat O'Hara Creek, 
thence to the Yellowstone River, and so to Bill- 
ings, Montana, which we reached the afternoon of 
November 5. A little later the boys, who were 
enjoying their return to civilization, were settled 
WMth. An association of six months under the try- 
ing conditions of the mountains had naturally 
brought us close together, and genuine friendships 
resulted. 

I took quarters at the Metropolitan, a new hotel 
of rough boards hastily thrown together and thor- 
oughly well ventilated. Here I had the great 
pleasure of meeting two old friends of ante- 
bellum days, Joel B. Glough and Adna Anderson. 
We had been fellow civil engineers on connecting 
railroads In Tennessee for several years, and had 
become good friends. Adna Anderson was a fel- 
low member of the American Society of Civil En- 
gineers. He was at that time engineer in chief of 
the Northern Pacific Railroad, while J. B. Glough 
was his principal assistant engineer at the end of 
the track. It was extremely pleasant to meet these 
men in this out of the way part of the country. 

I spent about two weeks in and around Billings, 
partly on business. Messrs. Anderson and Glough 
were very kind. I made a trip with Glough to the 

226 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

head of the track, sleeping In boarding cars and 
enjoying it all. 

The hotel which I occupied was a small con- 
struction of loose boards, and the change from 
sleeping in a warm tent to these quarters in a barn 
of a hotel, did not agree with me. I caught cold, 
and on November 21 became seriously sick. When 
my friends learned of it, they at once sent me one of 
the best of surgeons. Dr. Parker, who pronounced 
the disease pneumonia in one lung, and two nurses 
were provided. In a week the other lung became 
involved. The next morniwg after this new com- 
plication, appeared friend Glough with the doctor 
and four stout men with a stretcher, and told me 
that it was imperative that I should have more 
comfortable quarters. I was put on the stretcher, 
carried through the streets for several hundred 
yards and deposited on a very comfortable bed in 
a convenient, well furnished room in a building 
constructed by the Northern Pacific Railroad Co. 
for the use of its Engineer Corps. The room was 
Mr. dough's own room, which he had given up 
to me. 

For twenty-six days I was sick with this dread 
disease, and for a week my fate hung in the 
balance. At last, however, the kindness and atten- 
tion of Colonel Glough, Dr. Parker and Mrs. 

227 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Tomlinson, the matron of the building, together 
with a strong constitution, pulled me through the 
crisis. While I was convalescing. Dr. Monroe 
came from Bozeman to visit me, as also did 
George Wakefield and Mr. Huffman. On Decem- 
ber 1 8, with Colonel Glough, Mrs. Tomlinson and 
a number of young engineers, who were going 
East, I left for Minneapolis. When wholly recov- 
ered, about the middle of January, I went to 
Denver, Colo., where I remained until May, when 
I returned to St. Paul. I left Billings May 15 for 
my new ranch on the Grey Bull, riding my old 
horse, purchased at the mouth of the Musselshell 
from Pike Landusky, which had carried me over 
many a mile of prairie and mountain. We reached 
my ranch on the Grey Bull River May 30. I had 
engaged J. Bradley and his wife to live with me, 
and we shortly moved into the buildings which 
Corey had finished, and took formal possession. 
I lived on that ranch until the fall of 1904, 
twenty-one years. 



228 



1 883 

In September, 1883, I was living on my cattle 
ranch on Grey Bull River, Wyoming, Big Horn 
County, with Jay Bradley and his wife as 
employees; Mrs. Bradley as housekeeper and 
cook, and Jay doing the outside work. 

I had determined with Bradley to take a hunt 
in the mountains to the west for grizzly bear and 
elk, the latter for winter's meat. 

We were to have started the next day, Septem- 
ber 12, when word came that Otto Franc, my 
neighbor, six miles below, while gathering his beef 
cattle preparatory to taking them to Chicago to 
market, had met with a misfortune in which, 
during a stampede, fifty fat beeves, while attempt- 
ing to cross a deep gulch, had been trampled to 
death by those following. The catastrophe had 
taken place about three miles below me, near the 
river, at the mouth of Rose Creek, a mountain 
stream, which, through a gorge about twenty feet 
in depth, entered Grey Bull River from the north. 

229 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

My neighbor, Richard Ashworth, had filed on the 
land around the mouth of this creek, and George 
Marquette was constructing the necessary ranch 
buildings just above the mouth of the creek. 
Among his other belongings, George owned an 
"ornery" bench-legged dog. 

The men in charge of the seventy-five beeves 
already collected, crossed the cattle just above the 
mouth of this creek, the cattle coming out of the 
river bottom on to the bench just opposite the tent 
occupied by George and his dog. As soon as 
the leaders of the herd emerged from the bottom, 
the dog burst out at them, barking fiercely. Fat 
cattle are usually easily alarmed, and in this case 
the leaders were greatly frightened. They turned 
square to the right, ran at full speed toward the 
gorge at the mouth of the creek, the others of the 
herd as they came to the top of the bench madly 
following the leaders. The leaders, naturally 
hesitating on the brink, were swept intO' the gorge, 
followed by the balance of the herd. The finale 
was that the gorge was literally filled up and 
bridged over with a mass of fat beeves of 1,200 
to 1,500 pounds weight, about fifty head being 
trampled to death. 

From my knowledge of grizzly bears, I knew 
that all the bears from the surrounding mountains 

230 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

would be attracted tO' this pile of fat flesh, so I 
determined quietly to await developments at home. 

Knowing the habits of these bears, It was evi- 
dently a discreet policy to move with a good deal 
of caution ; not to show myself to them or to leave 
my scent around or near the bait late In the day. 
Alarmed In any way, they would at once become 
cautious, and would come to feed only at night. 
I accordingly scouted around early In the day on 
the outskirts of the locality tO' ascertain the route 
by which the bears approached, and then late in 
the evening, watched the trail some distance back 
from instead of at the carcasses. The bears soon 
found the feast and commenced their visitations. 

Four or five days were required tO' ascertain the 
direction from which they came and the route or 
trail they used. I found that one or more came 
down Rose Creek, or Four Bear, as It was after- 
ward named, and one or two came down the river 
on the north side. Watching the trail on the 
latter stream, on two evenings, I saw a bear pass 
down about sundown, but on each occasion out of 
good rifle range. 

A few evenings afterward, the same bear again 
passed down the valley, but still out of rifle range. 
Unless sure of a certain hit, in a vital place, it was 
not good policy to fire. Watching the other trail, 

231 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

I selected a location near the carcass, to catch the 
bear coming down the river, thinking he laid up 
during the day in a certain thicket. Going early 
to a position at the head of the trail he traveled in 
coming from the thicket, a porcupine was encoun- 
tered, and by punching him with my rifle, he was 
made to climb a small tree, and was made an 
object lesson — a sign that there was noi danger. 

Soon after locating myself, a dark object was 
seen on the edge of the thicket, apparently peeping 
out. He soon satisfied himself that the way was 
clear, and walked rapidly toward me. He had 
reached the foot of the trail approaching me — 
about twenty yards distant — when I delivered a 
shot, but it was not effective. As he rushed back 
toward the thicket, two more shots were delivered, 
when he dropped at the edge of the thicket, too 
badly hit to go further. This happened before 
night. He was disemboweled and the ranch was 
reached before dark. After firing several shots 
around a carcass it was useless tO' remain longer, 
as no bear would come till late at night. 

I now turned my attention to the bears ap- 
proaching from Four Bear Creek. The first even- 
ing's reconnaissance came near success. Lying in 
full view of a trail, but close enough, with plenty 
of daylight for a safe shot, an old bear and two 

232 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

cubs came along the trail. In. rising to a position 
for delivering a shot, the rustling of the grass 
attracted the bear's attention, and she stopped, the 
cubs sitting up and looking to see what was up. 
It had become dark, and the distance being 125 
yards, I determined not to risk a shot, but wait for 
a more convenient season. They passed on down. 

A reconnaissance the next morning indicated 
that the bears laid up during the day in a willow 
thicket near the creek and about a mile above the 
pile of beef. I selected a place on the hillside near 
the trail they traveled, to occupy that evening. I 
was accordingly on hand about sundown, and was 
soon in position, dressed in a buckskin suit of the 
color of dead grass. 

The light was becoming dim, when a slight 
sound came from the thicket above, and soon there 
appeared on the trail a dark object, followed by 
two smaller dark spots. I at once realized it was 
the old bear and the cubs, and prepared for what 
was to come. The trail along which they ap- 
proached passed within thirty feet of me. My 
first shot was delivered when the old she bear was 
within fifty feet. In the dusk it was not at once 
fatal, for she rushed toward me with two or three 
jumps, and then not knowing exactly where I lay, 
stood on hindfeet to look for me. I was then 

23,3 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

ready for her, and a close shot delivered into her 
chest rolled her over. I then delivered a shot into 
each of the cubs, one of which managed to get 
back into the brush. I quickly followed, and by 
its squalling found it and delivered another shot. 
As it ceased squalling, I was satisfied it was dead. 
By the time these bears were dressed it was fully 
dark, but the moon was shining, although occa- 
sionally obscured by a cloud. 

I determined to make a scout around that pile 
of beef before bedtime. Mounting my hunting 
mare Kate, I made a circuit to the left for some 
distance, so as not tO' alarm any animal there, 
either by scent or noise. Cautiously approaching, 
my mare was tied to a tree about three hundred 
yards to leeward of the carcasses. The mare acted 
very uneasy and must have scented the bears. 

I took the precaution to tie a wad of white tissue 
paper on the end of the rifle barrel, over the sight, 
for night work, and cautiously approached. My 
object was to slip up to the edge of the gulch and 
have a commanding view below. At such short 
range I could get one good shot, and then depend 
on having a second shot as the bear ascended the 
opposite side, which had a gentler slope. 

When within one hundred feet of the rim of the 
gulch, a coyote passed just in front of me and dis- 

234 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

appeared down toward where the bear would be 
found. I knew he would at once give the alarm. 
Knowing that animal's character for veracity, or, 
rather, for lack of veracity, I hoped the bears, if 
any were there, would pay no attention to him, so 
I walked rapidly toward the gulch. When within 
fifty feet of the brink, two dark objects appeared, 
walking rapidly up the opposite slope. The moon 
was clouded over, and as I was not ready to shoot, 
I at once dropped and lay prone and very close to 
the ground. When the bears reached the top of 
the bank they stopped, and Immediately sat up 
and looked very Intently in my direction. Then 
they walked away about fifty feet, turned and 
walked back again, and again sat up and looked. 
They moved about, back and forth, in most in- 
tricate or fantastic fashion, sitting up occasionally 
to try to discover danger. They evidently had 
not believed the coyote talk, yet they were unwill- 
ing to take any chances. 

Discovering no sign of danger, and doubtless 
being hungry, they returned down the slope to the 
feast. I was on the point of slipping up to the 
brink and delivering a shot, believing I could get 
both — the second one as he ascended the slope. 
Before I had time to move, however, the coyote, 
doubtless wishing a free hand at the carcasses, had 

235 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

insisted on his story, the two bears walked swiftly 
up the opposite slope, again sat up, took a search- 
ing view in my direction and commenced going 
through the same gyrations as before. Had they 
believed the coyote's tale at first, they would have 
come up from the gulch on a run and disappeared. 

Their actions plainly showed their uneasiness 
and their doubt as tO' what course to pursue. Be- 
fore them was that mass of fat flesh they were 
eager to fill up on ; yet, in the face of the story told 
by that lying coyote, that their inveterate enemy 
was lurking near, they hesitated to take the 
chances. Finally, at a swift walk, they went up 
the opposite bank, thus apparently intent on some 
scheme. I kept them in sight with my field glasses 
until, after going about two hundred yards, they 
stopped, remained irresolute for a while, and then 
retraced their steps and appeared on the point of 
descending to where the coyote was enjoying 
himself. 

They were evidently afraid to do so, and again 
sat up and looked long and intently in my direc- 
tion. My clothes were so much the color of dry 
grass and I hugged the ground so closely, with my 
head to them, that they did not discover danger. 
Again they began to do what they had done be- 
fore^ — walking away fifty feet or more, then com- 

236 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

ing back again, and sitting up and looking intently 
in my direction. By this time I became very much 
interested as to the significance of their actions, 
and my wits became sharpened. I became inter- 
ested in guessing at what these two hungry bears 
would do. 

Finally putting their heads together, they ap- 
parently held a council of war and determined on 
a course of action. They moved swiftly up the 
creek, as once before they had done. I watched 
them through the field glasses, for the moon was 
shining, and they soon disappeared in the darkness. 

It then dawned upon me what these bears wefe 
up to. Evidently they intended to cross the creek 
a short distance above, make a circuit some dis- 
tance in rear of the point where they feared their 
enemy lurked, obtain its wind, ascertain what it 
was and then act. 

In the bright moonlight and the open cotton- 
wood timber a good view could be had by the aid 
of glasses for a long distance up the creek. I kept 
a sharp lookout, and soon detected two dark 
objects, and approaching. My surmise had proved 
correct. It was time to act. Withdrawing cau- 
tiously out of sight, I made a circuit to the rear 
far enough, as I believed, to circumvent their 
designs, took a position in a low swale, and waited. 

227 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

As they approached at a fast walk, they could 
be easily heard sniffing the air for the scent of their 
enemy. They looked fearfully big in the moon- 
light. Finding my position was sufficiently far 
back to circumvent their design, I lay down on 
the side of the swale in a position from which I 
could quickly rise to a sitting posture and deliver 
fire. Sniffing the air audibly, they came rapidly 
forward, and as it happened, along the lowest part 
of the swale in which I lay, and with the direction 
taken, they would soon stumble upon me. They 
were approaching so rapidly that something had 
to be done soon. It was now "either a fight or a 
foot race." I did not hesitate, but rose quickly to a 
sitting position with rifle ready for action. At the 
change of position the two bears, either from noise 
made by my movement or getting a sight of some- 
thing unusual in the moonlight, stopped. Almost 
as quick as thought, by a careful aim, I delivered 
fire at the mass of the foremost bear, and at the 
crack of the rifle he fell in his tracks. The other 
bear remained motionless, apparently dazed. An- 
other cartridge was quickly inserted, but before 
aim could be taken he sprung off to the left and was 
soon on a full run to the hills near, making fear- 
fully long jumps. Before he had gone far, the 
first shot was delivered — a miss; then a second 

238 




•BATTLEFIELD" OF SEPT. 13, 



A B— Route of cattle crossing river. 

H— Marquee tent (unoccupied that night) and dog. 

H B — Route of dog when he said bow-wow. 

F — Where Kate was tied. 

E — Where hunter lay flat. 

C H L M— Route of two bears in crossing creek. 

M— Where the last bears stood. 

K — Point whence last shots were fired. 

M N— Route of second bear as he escaped. 

G — Pile of beeves. 

S— Camp of U. S. Surveyors. 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

shot — a miss, and he soon disappeared in the dark- 
ness. These shots were fired about half past nine 
o'clock. Before their reverberations had ceased 
they were answered by the yells and whoops of a 
party of United States surveyors, encamped, as I 
learned later, across the Grey Bull River, just 
above the mouth of the creek. 

On examining the carcass, I found that the bullet 
had penetrated the skull near the eye, passing 
through the brain, and hence the sudden and 
motionless death. As the fore-sight was a wad of 
white tissue paper bound on the end of the barrel, 
this proved a good shot at thirty-seven and one^ 
half yards, as measured from the carcass the next 
day, to the point at which the three empty shells 
were found. 

I should have secured the other bear, but in 
Inserting the cartridge in the Sharps rifle it was 
not pushed in far enough, there was a hitch in clos- 
ing the breech-action, and precious time was lost. 

No further attention was paid to the humble 
coyote. By his strategy he had earne'd his good 
luck, as for that night at least, he had undisputed 
sway over the pile of beef. 

After hastily dressing this bear, Kate was hunted 
up, mounted, and by midnight I was abed, well 
satisfied with the evening's work. 

239 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

As my ranch had not been occupied until May 
30, there had been little preparation for winter's 
vegetables. Jay Bradley had gone to a ranch fifty 
miles to the north for a thousand pounds of pota- 
toes, bought at four cents per pound, and was due 
the next morning. I accordingly intercepted him 
the next forenoon, the wagon was driven by the 
carcasses, they were loaded into it and brought to 
the ranch. In passing home we met my neighbor, 
Richard Ashworth, who soon after moved to his 
new ranch. He stopped and wondered at the 
wagon box full of grizzly bear. These bear were 
all weighed by a pair of ice scales; the old bears, 
350 pounds each after dressing, equivalent to 475 
pounds on foot, and the cub 100 pounds, equal to 
135 pounds on foot. 

As it happened, Mr. Ashworth visited the U. S. 
surveyors' camp, and told them of the result of the 
firing the night before. As these surveyors were 
giving names to all streams for their maps, the 
name of this creek, at neighbor Ashworth's sug- 
gestion, was changed from Rose to Four Bear 
Creek. In after years, when a postoffice was 
established in this neighborhood, the name Four 
Bears was given it in the petition for its establish- 
ment. 

I have given this night's happenings thus in 
240 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

detail, as it was one of the most exciting adventures 
I ever had, in an experience of more than seven 
years with this big bear, and required the exercise 
of the greatest coolness and judgment and knowl- 
edge of the habits of this fierce animal. 

Had the last bear received any other wound, 
however fatal, except the paralyzing shot through 
the brain, there might have been not a little trouble 
that moonlit night, in which the bear's partner 
might have taken a hand. 

JVm. D. Pickett, 



241 



NOTES ON MEMORIES OF A BEAR HUNTER 

By Geo. Bird Grinnell 

To many readers the years told of in Colonel 
Pickett's Memories will seem a period of romance, and 
it is true that they deal with ancient history. Of his 
references and allusions to people, places and events, 
some or many — though matters of common knowl- 
edge at the time of which he writes — have now long 
been forgotten, except by the small number of people 
who were familiar with those times. It was not long 
after the years referred to in the last chapters of these 
Memories that much of the West was overswept by 
a tide of immigration, and a new population, occupied 
with new and personal affairs, came into the country, 
and by their numbers overwhelmed the older popula- 
tion, and effaced the memory of a multitude of the 
old events. 

For this reason, it seemed desirable that some of 
Colonel Pickett's chapters should be annotated with 
some fullness, and Colonel Pickett received the sug- 
gestion with much satisfaction and wholly approved 
of it. 

242 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Huntef 

I was in Montana before, during, and after the 
years described by Colonel Pickett, and from my own 
knowledge of events, and with the help of others, I 
have been able to add to Colonel Pickett's narrative 
certain explanations which may be of interest. 

T. Elwood ("Billy") Hofer, who was out with 
Colonel Pickett for one or more seasons, and who 
spent many years in the Yellowstone National Park, 
has kindly helped me with a number of suggestions 
bearing on events of more than thirty years ago. 



1876. 



1. Fort Abraham Lincoln, N. D., was established 
June 4, 1872, by Companies B and C, Sixth Infantry, 
under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel 
Huston, Jr. The post was first known as Fort 
McKeen. The name was changed November 19, 1872. 

It was from Fort Abraham Lincoln that General 
Stanley set out in 1873 for the Yellowstone Expe- 
dition, General Custer in 1874 for the Black Hills 
Expedition, and again in 1876 for the Yellowstone 
Expedition, where the Seventh Cavalry was almost 
annihilated. Abandoned September, 1891. 

2. The complete story of the Custer fight has never 
been written, though a multitude of individual articles 
have appeared which describe some of its incidents. 
Of all this literature, the best account is that written 

243 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

by General E. S. Godfrey, and published in the Cen- 
tury Magazine in the year 1892. It is understood 
that General Godfrey has long been engaged in the 
preparation of a book on this campaign, and when 
published, this book is likely to give us all that we 
shall ever know about the destruction of the old 
Seventh Cavalry. 

3. Missouri River Steamboat mid Freight TraMc. 
Steamboat travel on the Missouri in those days was 
slow, and sometimes difficult. The boats were of very 
shoal draft and were propelled by a single paddle 
wheel at the stern. When the water of the river was 
low, the vessel was constantly running on newly de- 
posited shoals and sand-bars, for the channel of the 
river changed from hour to hour. For this reason, 
at low stages of water, the boats usually tied up dur- 
ing the night. 

Each vessel was rigged with two long spars or 
poles, one at either side, just a little forward of amid- 
ships. One end of each spar was shod with iron, 
and through the other, or through a pulley attached 
to it, ran a rope, one end of which was fastened to 
the frame of the boat, while the other end was free. 
If the vessel ran firmly on a sand-bar or could not 
find a passage over a bar that seemed to block the 
channel, the iron-shod ends of the spars were put 
overboard and rested on the bottom — the spars stand- 
ing vertically — the free end of the rope was put about 
the drum of a donkey engine and the forward end of 
the boat was thus literally lifted up, and by means 
of the sternwheel propelled forward, until the bar 

244 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

was passed. If the bar was too wide, the boat was 
let down again to rest on the bottom, the spars were 
moved forward a few feet, the bow was Hfted up 
again, and the pushing by the sternwheel renewed. 
In that way the steamboat used to frequently "walk" 
over the sand-bars. Sometimes it was necessary to 
land men and carry forward a line to some point on 
the bank where it could be attached to a tree or to a 
post set in the ground — called a dead man. This line 
was then put about the drum of the engine, which 
pulled on the line, while the clumsy wheel pushed be- 
hind. This operation, in a sense, resembled the old- 
fashioned cordelling, where a number of men marched 
along the river bank hauling the boat up against the 
current by a long line. The donkey engine, which 
was so much in use during these periods of low water, 
was called the "nigger." 

The earlier freight traffic up the Missouri River 
was by means of keel boats. The boatsmen made 
their way up the stream in such fashion as was most 
convenient, rowing, poling or cordelling, as the case 
might be, from starting point to finish. Year by year 
the steamboats extended their journeys from St. Louis 
further and further up the great river, and as the 
journeys of the steamboats lengthened, those of the 
keel boats grew shorter, though the mackinaws were 
long used in sending furs down stream — with the 
current. General Chittenden says: 

"In the year 1831 the first serious attempt was made 
to navigate with steamboats the Upper Missouri River. 
The steamer Yellowstone in the summer of that year 
reached Pierre, the site of the present capital of South 

24s 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Dakota. In the following year the same boat reached 
Fort Union above the mouth of the Yellowstone River. 
The Assiniboine followed in 1833, and the latter boat 
in 1834 and 1835 reached Poplar Creek, sixty miles 
higher up. In 1850 the mouth of Milk River was 
reached. In 1858 the Chippewa was built with special 
reference to the difficulties of upper river navigation. 
She was a sternwheel boat of light draught, and with 
her it was resolved to make a thorough trial of the ex- 
treme upper river. The attempt was successful. The 
boat reached Fort Brule, twelve miles below Benton, 
on the 17th of July, 1859, forty years and three months 
after the first steamboat entered the mouth of the 
Missouri. On July 2, i860, the Chippewa arrived at 
Fort Benton, followed a few hours later by the Spread 
Eagle. In July, 1868, the Tom Stevens, taking ad- 
vantage of high water, ascended the river to the 
mouth of Belt Creek, marking the highest point 
reached by any steamboat, and unquestionably the 
most distant point from the sea which a large vessel 
has ever yet been able to reach by a continuous water 
course. This point lacks but a few miles of being 
four thousand miles by river from the Gulf of Mexico, 
and it has been reached by a single river unaided by 
artificial improvements." 

After steamboat travel on the Missouri had been 
fully established and become commonplace, the boats 
pushed as far up the river as they could. Many of 
them which took advantage of the June rise reached 
Benton, while others might be forced to stop at Cow 
Island; or, if the water was low, at Carroll. From 
the point where the cargo was landed, it was im- 

246 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

portant that it should reach its destination as soon 
as possible, whether that point was Benton or Alder 
Gulch, which we now know as Helena. For this work 
many freight outfits sprang up. The "Diamond R" 
<R> was organized for this purpose at Fort Benton 
by John C. Rowe, of St. Louis, and finally passed into 
the hands of Montana owners. It was a great and 
well organized concern, and did not wholly disappear 
until the railroad had begun to put an end to steam- 
boat traffic on the Missouri. 

That water transportation was threatened had been 
long foreseen, yet the blow did not really fall until 
the year 1883, when the Northern Pacific Railroad 
was completed. When the Union Pacific reached 
Ogden in 1869, a freight line was established from 
that point to Helena, but the distance was too great 
for profit, and the steamboats on the river still carried 
most of the freight. Ten years later the narrow gauge 
road — the Utah Northern R. R. — laid its tracks north 
from Utah, entering Montana in 1880, and finally the 
road, which is now the Great Northern, gave the 
last blow to steamboating on the Upper Missouri. 

Up to that time Fort Benton had been the greatest 
city in all that northwestern country, and there seemed 
every promise that it would become a great metropolis, 
but with the advance of the railroad and the end of 
steamboating came also the end of the buffalo and 
the end of the fur trade, on which the existence ©f 
Fort Benton then depended. Henceforth, her only 
hope was to rank high as an agricultural center. 

4. Eort Stevenson, N. D., on the Missouri, was 
247 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

established June 22, 1867, by Companies H and I, 
Thirty-first Infantry, under the command of Major 
N. G. Whistler. It was abandoned August 31, 1883, 
and was afterward used by the Indian Department 
for school purposes until about 1903. 

5. Fort Berthold, a trading post, established in the 
year 1845, ^^^ said to have been named for Bartholo- 
mew Berthold, a Tyrolese, one of the officials of the 
American Fur Company. 

6. Ankara Indians. The history of the Arikaras 
is a long one. 

The French fur traders knew them as long ago 
as 1770. Lewis and Clark met them in 1804, when 
they were friendly and kindly disposed, but in 1823 
some of them attacked the boats of the fur trader 
Ashley, killing thirteen men and wounding others. 
Colonel Leavenworth was sent to punish them, and 
after some trouble a peace was finally concluded. This 
fighting, the attacks of the Sioux, and two years of 
crop failures, led them to abandon their villages on 
the Missouri, and to go south and join the Skidi, or 
Pawnee Loups, on the Loup Fork in Nebraska. They 
did not get along well with the Skidi, and after two 
years were requested to leave them. Some of them 
did so, but probably not all. 

In 1835 the Arikara — better known as Rees — or 
some of them, were camped near the forks of the 
Platte. These people, whether a wandering war party 
from the Missouri, or a section of the tribe living 
far from their own home, were apparently at enmity 

248 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

with many people. They were accused not only of 
taking horses from the Delawares, but even of steal- 
ing from their friends, the Comanches. Some of them, 
however, joined in expeditions with the Pawnees to 
make peace with the Cheyennes and the Arapahoes. 

In former times the Cheyennes had been on terms 
of friendship with the Missouri village tribes, Ari- 
kara, Hidatsa and Mandans, and frequently visited 
and traded with them. Colonel Henry Dodge speaks 
of this, and of a break in the friendship which took 
place a little later. He says : 

**The Arikaras were formerly on very friendly 
terms with the Cheyennes and lived with them for 
some time; after the Cheyennes had concluded an 
alliance with the Arepahas, the Arikaras commenced 
stealing their horses. Still they would not go to 
war; they said they did not care for a few horses. 
The Arikaras soon after killed several whites who 
were trading with Arepahas. They then determined 
to declare war against them, and soon after the Are- 
pahas, meeting a war party of twenty or thirty Ari- 
karas who were coming to steal their horses, they 
attacked them and killed them all, not one escaping. 
The Cheyennes soon after met a war party of Ari- 
karas and killed them all except one; him they told 
to go home and tell his people it was the Cheyennes 
who had killed the party. Since that period they have 
carried on a predatory warfare until the present 
time." 

After this, a peace was made, but no one knows 
very clearly how long it lasted. The Cheyennes de- 
clare — White Bull being my informant — ^that about 

249 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

1839 there was an Arikara village on the Beaver or 
Wolf Creek in the Indian Territory, and that this 
village was attacked by southern Indians — perhaps 
Kiowas, Comanches and Apaches or Cheyennes — and 
all its inhabitants killed. On the other hand, for many 
years the Cheyennes lived with the Rees or the Man- 
dans, the latter of whom they called Earth Lodge 
People, for many years. Standing All Night, a Chey- 
enne, who died in 1869, supposed to be about a hun- 
dred years old, said that he was born in the Mandan 
village, and that a great many of his people lived 
there in earth lodges, and in all their habits conformed 
to the Mandans. At all events their relations with 
the Cheyennes, fifty, sixty or seventy years ago were 
close. To-day there are many Cheyenne people who 
have Ree blood in their veins. Two Moon, the head 
chief, is half Ree, and one of his names is Roman 
Nosed Ree. There are now living among the North- 
ern Cheyennes several old men of pure Ree blood. 
These men are far darker in color than the people 
among whom they are living, and generally the Ari- 
karas have seemed to me dark enough in color to 
justify the name sometimes given to them of Black 
Pawnee. 

The last report of their numbers gives only 411 
Arikaras at the Ft. Berthold Reservation. 

7. Gros Ventres Indians. This is a name given to 
two different and unrelated tribes of Indians — the 
Gros Ventres of the Village, or of the Missouri, of 
Siouan stock, and the Gros Ventres of the Prairie, or 
Atseha, of Algonquin stock. The ones here referred 

250 



If 




nh 



KHUDAI KHILDI. 
(See page 314.) 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

to are the Gros Ventres of the Village who have long 
been associated at or near Fort Berthold, N. D,, with 
the Mandan and Arikara. These are a section of the 
Crow tribe, but the separation took place long ago. 
They are now very few in number. A census taken 
in 1910 gives only 466. 

In their later ways of life they closely resembled 
the Mandan and Arikara, living in earth lodges and 
depending for support largely on agriculture. At 
present their numbers are about stationary. 

8. Bullhoat. The Century Dictionary defines a 
bullboat as a shallow crate, covered with the hide of 
a bull elk — certainly a very bad definition. The bull- 
boats used on the upper Missouri up to the time of 
the disappearance of the buffalo there were deep bowl- 
shaped craft, covered, as Colonel Pickett remarks, 
with buffalo hide stretched over a frame of willow 
twigs. The bullboat was not used for traveling, but 
for transporting articles — one might say freight if 
this term could be used about the possessions of In- 
dians — across the Missouri River. The woman who 
paddled it plunged the paddle into the water as far 
as possible ahead of the boat, and drew the paddle 
toward herself. Progress was slow, but the women 
became skillful in managing these craft, and they 
were extremely useful to the Village — Fort Berthold 
— Indians. 

9. Woodyards. In the old days of steamboat travel 
on the Upper Missouri, fuel for the engines was ob- 
tained at woodyards, so-called. These woodyards 

251 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

were commonly on points or bottoms where there was 
a good growth of cottonwood timber, and their estab- 
lishment by woodchoppers was speculative. In winter 
or early spring two or three men would go to this 
place, chop many cords of wood and pile it at a con- 
venient landing place, in the hope of selling it to the 
steamboats at a good price during the following sum- 
mer. The men who engaged in this business were 
commonly known as "wood-hawks." They led lives 
of adventure and often of considerable danger. Hos- 
tile Indians — and in those days all Indians were hos- 
tile — were likely at any time to discover the location 
of these "wood-hawks" and to try to kill them. On 
the other hand, the "wood-hawks" were aware of 
their danger and kept a sharp lookout for Indian 
sign. Often they were provided with field glasses, 
and often they made a business of proceeding each 
day by some safe route to a high lookout point from 
which the neighboring country might be viewed. 
Still, these men were occasionally killed, and an 
occasion is recalled when six men, who had started 
out to do this work, were not heard of again until 
some traveler along the river found their dead bodies 
and their half burned cabin. 

10. Fort Buford was a military post at the site of 
old Fort Union at the mouth of the Yellowstone River. 
It was established June 13, 1866. Fort Union, accord- 
ing to Maximilian, was begun in 1829. It was a large 
post, said by Chittenden to have been 240 x 220 feet, 
the shorter side facing the river, and was surrounded 
by a palisade of squared logs about a foot thick and 

252 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

20 feet high. The bastions were at the southwest and 
northwest corners, and were square houses 24 feet 
to the side and 30 feet high. They were built of 
stone in two stories, the lower pierced for cannon, 
while the upper had a balcony. Across the square 
from the entrance stood the house of the bourgeois. 
Around the square were the houses for the employees, 
the storehouses, workshops, stables, a powder maga- 
zine and a reception room for the Indians. In the 
midst of the square was a flagstaff, and clustered 
about this were the lodges of some of the employees. 
Cannon directed toward the entrance of the fort stood 
near the flagstaff. 

Fort Union was visited by Maximilian, Catlin and 
Audubon, the latter in 1843. He gives in his journal 
— Audubon and His Journals, Vol. II., p. 180 — an 
elaborate description of the fort. Among the old- 
time bourgeois of this post were Mackenzie, James 
Kipp and Alexander Culbertson. Joseph Kipp, a well- 
known resident of Northwestern Montana, was at 
Fort Union as a boy for many years. His father was 
James Kipp and his mother a Mandan woman. 

11. Assinihoine Indians. The Assiniboines, or 
"stone boilers" as they used to be called, are the 
northernmost tribe of the Sioux, or Dakota. The 
name by which they are called comes from two Chip- 
pewa words, M sin'i or a sin' i, and a pwaiv'a, he 
cooks with or by stones. The reference is obviously 
to the boiling of food by the use of hot stones, a 
practice which was, of course, common over much 
of the continent, and in which the Assiniboines were 

253 



^Hunting at High Altitudes 

by no means peculiar. The Assiniboines separated 
from the Sioux before — probably a long time before 
— the coming of the whites, and moved north and 
joined the Crees, living about the Lake of the Woods 
and Lake Winnipeg. Alexander Henry was one of 
the early white men to visit camps of the plains 
Assiniboines in 1775, and at that time the people there 
were so little familiar with white men that women 
and children followed the traders about the camp, 
staring at them with the greatest curiosity. The As- 
siniboines were formerly regarded as one of the last 
tribes of the north to have procured horses. They 
were reported to declare that they did not want horses, 
which were only a trouble to them, as well as a 
danger. Horses, they said, constantly wandered away 
and had to be sought for, and were a continual temp- 
tation to their enemies to attack them. They pre- 
ferred dogs, which were as useful as beasts of burden, 
and always remained with their owners, instead of 
running away. I saw the dog travois in use among 
them as late as 1895. 

I The Assiniboines in the United States are chiefly 
on the Missouri River near the mouth of Milk River, 
and at the Little Rocky Mountains in Montana. In 
Canada there are a number of small groups on streams 
of the plains, and a considerable settlement at Morley, 
Alberta, known as Stoney Indians. In fact, this is 
the common name for the Assiniboines in Canada. 

12. Major Mitchell. Thomas J. Mitchell, of 
Illinois, was appointed agent for the Indians of the 
Milk River Agency (Fort Peck) in Montana, Jan- 

2S4 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

uary 22, 1876, and served in that capacity until June 
22, 1877. 

13. This black paint of course meant that the war- 
rior had been one of a war party which had killed 
enemies. 

14. Red River Halfbreeds. In 1910 I wrote a 
brief account of these people, from which the follow- 
ing paragraphs are taken: 

Scattered about as individuals or families, the Red 
River halfbreeds were inconspicuous and of no im- 
portance. By the more staid and methodical people 
of Anglo-Saxon blood, they were thought of with 
more or less contempt by reason of their volatile 
nature and their disinclination for settled habits. But, 
gathered together in a great camp moving toward the 
buffalo, or in the buffalo country, they were impres- 
sive because as a community they were unlike any 
of the great camps of the people whose blood flowed 
in their veins. In some degree they possessed the 
caution and foresightedness of their Caucasian ances- 
tors, but with this was united the keenness of obser- 
vation, the knowledge of the habits of animals and 
generally of the processes of nature which they in- 
herited from their savage mothers. 

Little more than half a century witnessed the be- 
ginning and the ending of the great halfbreed camp, 
but during the short time that they were, or seemed 
to be, a people or tribe by themselves, they were well 
worth studying. They were friendly and kindly in 
their nature, usually on good terms with white 

25s 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

travelers and Indians alike ; though to be sure occas- 
ionally attempts at horse stealing by the Indians re- 
sulted in a collision with those people, but this was 
unusual. Yet it is stated that once, in the summer 
of 185 1, they were attacked by 1,000 Yankton Sioux, 
when, after a long fight behind their breastworks, 
the halfbreeds beat off the Indians. 

The Red River halfbreeds were more or less no- 
madic, dwelling at least for a part of the year in 
tents, and in many respects living much like the In- 
dians whose blood they shared. The children of em- 
ployees of the Hudson's Bay Company by Indian 
mothers, two classes were recognized; the French 
halfbreeds and the English halfbreeds. Their Celtic 
blood often hurried the French section into acts hos- 
tile to the Government, or to the fur company, and 
in some cases led to actual rebellion. The last of 
these outbreaks took place in 1883, and was partici- 
pated in by a number of simple Indians over whom 
the halfbreeds had much influence. Following the 
putting down of this, which from its leader was called 
the second Riel rebellion, Riel was hanged, as were 
also some of the Indians. 

Each spring the French halfbreeds gathered at the 
fort — Fort Garry — for their long journey to the plains, 
where they killed great numbers of buffalo, drying 
the meat and making pemmican for sale and for 
winter subsistence, and the women dressing the hides, 
which were sold to the Hudson's Bay Company. 

The hunting grounds of the Red River halfbreeds 
extended from the Saskatchewan on the north, south- 
ward sometimes as far as the Yellowstone River. 

256 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

They followed the buffalo wherever they were, and 
with them took their whole families and all their 
worldly possessions, transported in the famous Red 
River carts. Usually they made their start about the 
15th of June, a part going from the Red River settle- 
ment and another part from the White Horse Plain 
on the Assiniboine. Once these bands traveled to- 
gether, but differences sprang up among them, and 
between 1850 and 1857 they hunted apart. 

Sometimes the halfbreeds were absolutely improvi- 
dent and thoughtless of the future. Often they made 
surrounds and killed buffalo purely for the love of 
killing, taking nothing but the skins and tongues, 
and not recognizing that this great destruction of the 
buffalo must sooner or later react upon themselves. 

While often they rioted in plenty, having more food 
than it was possible to consume, at other times they 
suffered from hunger. If buffalo could not be found, 
provisions became scarce ; children cried with hunger 
and all complained of the lack of food. It was a 
feast or a famine. 

Sometimes, too, they lost their animals. The horses 
strayed away or the oxen that belonged in the camp 
took the back trail and had to be searched for at great 
loss of time. 

On the other hand, when hunting, their industry 
was very great. They had a splendid organization ; 
they were at peace with all the Indians of the plains, 
who in early days neither wished nor dared to attack 
them. The approach of a hostile party to the half- 
breed camp meant merely the withdrawal of the half- 
breeds within the circle of their lodges, and the turn- 

257 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

ing up of carts on their sides to make breastworks 
behind which to fight. The Indians of those days 
had few guns or none, and scarcely ever attacked 
them, except as already explained. 

When the buffalo were found, if the situation was 
favorable, a surround was made, but on the other 
hand sometimes the buffalo were on the flat prairie, 
in which case it was necessary to approach them 
openly, and the horsemen could not get nearer than 
four or five hundred yards before the buffalo started. 
Then, if it was spring and the horses were thin and 
weak, a long chase was required to overtake the buf- 
falo, and sometimes they might not be overtaken at 
all. If the horses were weak and the buffalo were 
in such a position that there was danger that they 
might escape without being overtaken, the chiefs 
would sometimes send out two men to approach the 
buffalo gradually from one side, and starting them 
slowly to bring them close to the camp. The young 
men rode at a walk or a trot parallel to the direction 
in which the buffalo were headed, and before long 
the buffalo began to trot and then perhaps to gallop. 

If, riding on the left hand side of the herd, the 
men wished to turn them to the right, they drew 
away from them to a greater distance. If they wished 
to turn them to the left, they directed their course 
more toward the herd, which then in turn bent its 
course toward the riders, as if trying to cross in front 
of them. By this method of riding, the buffalo could 
often be drawn some miles in one direction or the 
other, and toward the waiting and concealed hunters. 

On favorable ground, when a successful approach 
258 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

was made, the buffalo, with tails on end, rushed off 
in headlong flight. Presently the swiftest horses be- 
gan to overtake them and to disappear in the dust 
kicked up by the flying herd. The noise and confus- 
ion caused by the running animals was astonishing. 
A thick cloud of dust hung over the scene, the air 
was full of pebbles and sand kicked up by the hurry- 
ing feet, shots began to be heard, and presently the 
prairie was strewn with brown bodies. 

In such a race the men rode their best horses, trained 
buffalo runners, as experienced as their masters in 
picking out the best cows, in avoiding the holes and 
obstacles which lay everywhere on the prairie, in 
avoiding also the charge of angry animals that they 
overtook and passed. Really, the experienced rider 
paid no attention to his horse and merely loaded, fired 
and reloaded until the chase was over. Practically 
all these men used muzzleloading flintlock guns. Their 
balls they carried in their mouths, the powder was in 
a cowhorn hung under the right arm. They loaded 
on the run, spat a ball into the muzzle, jarred the gun 
stock on the saddle or with the hand, threw some 
priming into the pan, and fired. Accidents were fre- 
quent. Horses fell or were caught by cows and killed, 
guns burst, sometimes men were shot. By bursting 
guns men lost hands, arms and sometimes even lives, 
and Indian hunters have told me of men falling from 
their horses in such a way that whipstocks, arrows, 
bows and even guns were driven through their bodies. 

Besides tue dangers of the actual chase there was 
always a chance that a hunter separated from his own 
people, working off to one side or in some concealed 

259 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

place, might be attacked by Indians who, of course, at 
that time were eager for the guns which all the half- 
breeds possessed. 

The hunter's horse drew up close to the buflfalo, not 
more than two or three yards from it, and the shot 
was fired as the gun dropped to the level. The well- 
trained horse swerved away from the buffalo at the 
shot, and the man, prepared for the change of direc- 
tion, at once began to reload. When the chase was 
over, the hunters returned over the bufifalo-strewn 
prairie to identify the animals that each had killed. 
This was a matter of long practice, and an outdoor 
man can well understand how it was done. 

Alex. Ross once asked a hunter how it was possible 
that each could know his own animal in such a me- 
lange? He answered, by putting a question remark- 
able for its appropriate ingenuity, "Suppose," said he, 
"that four hundred learned persons all wrote words 
here and there on the same sheet of paper, would not 
the fact be that each scholar would point out his own 
hand writing?" It is true that practice makes per- 
fect, but with all the perfection experience can give, 
much praise is due to the observation of these people, 
quarrels being rare among them on such occasions. 

Soon after the hunters had left the camp, the women 
started out with the carts to bring in the meat. Prob- 
ably by the time they reached the killing ground, the 
men had returned and were hard at work skinning 
and cutting up the meat. The hunters worked back, 
skinning first the animals that they had last killed and 
coming the last of all to those first shot down. 

The appearance of these hunters, now finishing up, 
260 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

their day's work by skinning and butchering their 
animals, was extraordinary. Covered with dust and 
sweat, black from the flying gunpowder, bloody up 
to the elbows, their faces streaked and smeared with 
blood and grease as they brushed the long hair out 
of their faces, they presented an extraordinary spec- 
tacle of ferocity, which their unfailing good nature 
and merry laughter and jest wholly belied. 

After the meat and hides had been brought into 
camp, they were attended to by the women after the 
ordinary Indian fashion. The meat was cut into thin 
flakes and dried in the heat of the sun, or if the 
weather forbade this, hung up on scaffolds inside the 
lodges. The fat was saved and dried, the bones 
pounded up and boiled, and the fat skimmed off and 
placed in bladders. 

The halfbreed of the middle of the last century was 
an excellent hunter, a splendid plainsman and able to 
support himself and his family on the prairie under 
the most adverse conditions, but he was a slow and 
reluctant husbandman. Coming of two races, one of 
which, though capable of long continued and most 
arduous effort and endurance of hardship, had never 
been accustomed to steady and continuous labor, he 
was willing to work until he dropped at occupations 
which he enjoyed, but not at all disposed to tasks he 
regarded as irksome. 

It was between 1850 and 1870 that the Red River 
halfbreeds attained their greatest fame as buffalo 
hunters, but when in 1883 the buffalo disappeared, 
these hunters found their occupation gone, and knew 
not to what to turn to gain a livelihood. No doubt 

261 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

the disappearance of the buffalo had much to do with 
the working up of the last Riel rebelHon, and after 
that failed, the Red River halfbreeds as a camp ceased 
to exist. Many of them fled over the border into the 
United States and remained there, some taking up 
ranches and becoming useful citizens, others remain- 
ing nomads, traveling about with wagons which con- 
tained all their possessions, and from the ends of 
each of which protruded the family lodge poles. They 
camped where night found them, and lived as best 
they could. Others no doubt took up land in Canada, 
and being obliged to settle down and to remain in one 
place, became useful citizens of the Western Provinces 
of the Dominion. 

The Red River halfbreed has passed away forever. 
With his picturesque lodge, his complaining cart, his 
troop of dogs, his wife and daughters clad in silks, 
which were stained with buffalo grease and soiled 
with the dust of the prairie, he remains but a memory. 

15. Pemmica/ft, under one name or another, was 
a compact form of nourishment, made by most of the 
prairie Indians. A warrior setting out on foot to 
make a long journey into some enemy's country often 
had the many pairs of extra moccasins that he carried 
stuffed with pemmican, or, if not with pemmican, 
with pounded dried meat. 

Among the Sioux and the Cheyennes who did not 
make pemmican in such quantities as did the more 
northern Indians, the dried meat was often pounded 
with a small hammer on a smooth stone anvil. This 
anvil stood in the middle of an oblong or circular 

262 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

piece of rawhide, on which the pounded shreds of 
meat fell, to be gathered up from time to time, and 
put in a sack. 

As made by the Northern Blackfeet, "The meat was 
dried in the usual way, and for this use only lean meat, 
such as the hams, loins and shoulders was chosen. 
When the time came for making the pemmican, two 
large fires were built of dry quaking aspen wood, and 
these were allowed to burn down to red coals. The 
Old women brought the dried meat to these fires and 
the sheets of meat were thrown on the coals of one 
of them, allowed to heat through, turned to keep them 
from burning, and" then thrown on the flesh side of 
a dry hide that lay on the ground nearby. After a 
time the roasting of this dried meat caused a smoke 
to rise from the fire in use, which gave the meat a 
bitter taste if cooked on it. They then turned to the 
other fire, and used that until the first one had burned 
clear again. After enough of the roasted meat had 
been thrown on the hide, it was flailed out with sticks, 
and being very brittle, was easily broken up and made 
small. It was constantly stirred and pounded until 
it was all fine. Meantime, the tallow of the bufl^alo 
had been melted in a large kettle and the pemmican 
bags prepared. These were made of bull's hide and 
were in two pieces cut oblong, and with the corners 
rounded off. Two such pieces sewn together made 
a bag which would hold a hundred pounds. The 
pounded meat and tallow — the latter just beginning to 
cool — were put in a trough made of bull's hide, a 
wooden spade being used to stir the mixture. After 
it was thoroughly mixed, it was shoveled into one of 

263 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

the sacks held open, and rammed down and packed 
tight with a big stick, every effort being made to ex- 
pel all the air. When the bag was full and packed 
as tight as possible, it was sewn up. It was then put 
on the ground, and the women jumped on it to make 
it still more tight and solid. It was then laid away 
in the sun to cool and dry. It usually took the meat 
of two cows to make a bag of one hundred pounds ; 
a very large bull might make a sack of from eighty 
to a hundred pounds. 

*'A much finer grade of pemmican was made from 
the choice parts of the buffalo with marrow fat. To 
this dried berries and pounded choke cherries were 
added, making a delicious food which was extremely 
nutritious. Pemmican was eaten either dry as it came 
from the sack or stewed with water." Blackfoot 
Lodge Tales, p. 206. 

The word pemmican comes from the Cree language, 
the original term being pimikan, which is said by some 
to mean a bag full of grease and pounded meat, or 
by others to mean, manufactured grease. The root is 
pimu or pimiy, which means grease. The work of 
collecting grease by pounding up the bones of animals 
into small pieces, boiling them and skimming off the 
grease, which was then put in a vessel to cool, in 
primitive days occupied much of the time of old 
women. 

This is only one of a large number of Indian words 
which have been adopted into the English as spoken 
in the United States. 

16. Dr. Southworth. Dr. John W. Southworth 
264 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

was physician at the Fort Peck Agency from July i, 
1876, to June 22, 1877. Nothing is known of him 
or of Major Mitchell since they left the Indian ser- 
vice. 

17. White Beaver Creek. Tributary of Yellow- 
stone from the north, lying chiefly in the eastern 
part of Sweet Grass county, Montana. 

18. Burial Scaffolds. The platforms were com- 
monly formed of long willow twigs strung together 
on sinews, and supported beneath by two or three 
poles running at right angles to the twigs or length- 
ways of the body. These are made in the same fashion 
as back-rests or sleeping mattresses. These platforms 
were sometimes placed in trees or were lashed to 
four upright poles on the prairie. 

Good figures of the Dakota burial platforms, taken 
from Yarrow's Mortuary Customs, may be found in 
Bull. 30 of the Bureau of Amer. Eth., p. 940. 

The mortuary customs of the Indians were very 
various, and in different parts of the country there 
were different practices. Thus we have stone graves 
made of slabs of flat stone, arranged in box-like form ; 
we have mummies from Alaska and from the dry 
southwest; in portions of the northwest cremation 
was practiced, the ashes sometimes being kept in urns 
and sometimes being scattered, and besides there is 
the aerial sepulcher described by the author and also 
aquatic burial. Besides that, the dead were often put 
on tops of hills, not covered over at all, or on hills, 
with stones piled over them. The whole subject has 

26"; 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

been quite fully treated by Dr. H. C. Yarrow in his 
paper on Mortuary Customs, published as part of the 
First Annual Report of the Bur.of Amer. Ethn. in 1881. 
The Indians of the plains had no foolish prejudices 
against being eaten by animals. Brave men often 
expressed the hope that when they died their bodies 
might be left out on the prairie where the birds and 
the animals might feed on them, and they might thus 
be scattered far and wide over the prairie. (See 
Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk Tales, p. 46.) 

19. George Clendenin, Jr., the son of George Clen- 
denin, was born in Washington, D. C, about 1843-44. 
His father was an old soldier, after the Civil War in 
charge of the Rock Creek Cemetery near Washington. 

Colonel Clendenin came to Montana in 1869 or 1870 
and to Fort Benton in 1870. He was a man of high 
ideals, who believed that he could make money in 
trading with Indians without carrying a stock of 
liquor. He purchased from T. C. Power & Bro. a 
stock of goods for Indian trade and established a 
trading post at the mouth of the Musselshell. In 1871 
he sold to L. M. Black an interest in the business, and 
T. C. Power retired. The fact probably is that Power 
furnished the goods on credit and Black took his in- 
terest, though the business was probably done in Clen- 
denin's name. In the spring of 1872 Black brought 
a suit for dissolution of the copartnership, and the 
litigation continued until 1877. Clendenin took his 
stock of goods from Benton down the river in Macki- 
naw boats. The concern's chief trade was for buffalo 
robes. 

266 




.V 



*4^ 



IVAN WITH ROEBUCK HEADS. 

(See page 314.) 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

After the Indian trade at the mouth of the Mussel- 
shell had proved unsatisfactory, Clendenin bought out 
Black and moved his stock of goods up the Missouri 
River to Carroll. He traded there for three or four 
years, after 1874, before closing out. It is my im- 
pression that in the year 1875 he had a small trading 
post with a very slight stock of goods at the mouth of 
the Judith River, which he called Fort Claggett. This 
was to catch the trade of the wandering Gros Ventres 
of the Prairie, with whom the lower valley of the 
Judith was a favorite camping place. 

After closing out the business at Musselshell, Clen- 
denin became interested in the Barker Mining District 
in the southeastern part of Cascade County, Montana, 
and built there a smelter in which Power and others 
were interested. Clendenin was interested in the 
mines of this section and operated one known as the 
Clendenin Lode. While he was inspecting this in 
company with Louis Heitman and others, in 1882, a 
tunnel caved in and killed him. 

20. John J. Healy was for many years a noted 
character in Ft. Benton and the country to the North. 
He was an Irishman by birth, who as a young man 
had enlisted as a soldier and been stationed in the 
West. After his discharge he mined and traded, and 
worked in Northern Montana, where he was most 
highly respected and very successful. He it was who 
organized the famous Ispitsi Cavalry, and who kept 
order in that northern country until the Northwest 
Mounted Police came into it. After a time Montana 
and Alberta became too crowded for Healy, and he 

267 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

went to Alaska, where at once he impressed his fel- 
lows as he had done in Montana. He died only two 
or three years ago. He was a man whose life should 
have been written, and it was hoped that this task 
would have been undertaken by Edwin Tappen Adney, 
of Nova Scotia. 

''Johnny" Healy feared neither man nor devil ; and 
to this day stories of his daring linger in the northern 
country. 

21. The destruction of big game for the hides, 
which was taking place in 1876, is hardly to be com- 
prehended by those who did not see what was going 
on in those early years. Buflfalo, elk, mule deer, and 
antelope were slaughtered by thousands without re- 
gard to age or sex or season, and of the vast majority 
of the animals killed, only the hide was taken. Dur- 
ing the winter of 1874- 1875 it was estimated that in 
the valley of the Yellowstone, between the mouth of 
Trail Creek and the Mammoth Hot Springs, not less 
than 3,000 elk were killed for their hides alone. Buf- 
falo, mule deer, and antelope suffered as much or 
more than the elk. Travelers through Montana terri- 
tory in the summer of 1875 constantly came on places 
where buffalo carcasses were strewn everywhere, and 
it was common to pass a skin-hunting outfit, whose 
wagons were piled with the flat, dried hides of deer, 
elk, antelope and sheep, as high as a load of hay. 
This went on, as has been said, all through the year, 
and the females of these hoofed animals were as 
readily killed in spring or summer as at any other 
time. Owing to the sparse settlement of the country 

268 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

and the enormous abundance of game animals, the 
destruction was beyond belief. 

At certain points near army posts, efforts were made 
by officers to drive skin hunters away, and often with 
success, and the general sentiment of the better class 
of frontiersmen was against the butchery. The game 
laws of the territory existed only on the statute books, 
and people generally were not sufficiently interested 
to make any effort to have the laws enforced. They 
were not supported by public sentiment. The result 
of this slaughter was that the game passed out of 
existence. 

22. Ft. Benton. This famous trading post was 
built by the American Fur Co. about 1846. It had 
predecessors in the neighborhood, Ft. Mackenzie and 
Ft. Brule. It was long the most famous of the fur 
trading posts, partly because it stood at the head of 
the navigation on the Missouri River. Fort Benton, 
like others of the sod and adobe forts, finally went to 
ruin under the weather, and little of it now remains. 



1877. 

23. Nes Perce War. Much literature has been 
printed on this subject, but a good brief account, so 
far as the Yellowstone Park is concerned, will be 
found in General Chittenden's book. See Note 28. 

24. While perhaps the killing of the Nez Perces 
women may have had something to do with the 
changed attitude of the \varriors of the tribe, it is 

269 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

believed that the real cause of their bitterness was 
the fact that a number of the Nez Perces' dead were 
scalped by Howard's troops. There has been some 
controversy as to how this came to be done. Cer- 
tainly it was against the orders issued by General 
Howard. Very likely the scalps were taken by the 
Bannock scouts employed by Howard, and it may 
very well be that some of his white civilian scouts 
had a part in it. That scalping was forbidden by 
General Howard, and that the act was much regretted 
by him, cannot be doubted. It is probable that this 
is what cost the lives of all the civilians that were 
killed in the Nez Perce War. 

25. John Bean was born in Maine, and as a small 
boy moved with his family to Wisconsin. As soon 
as he became large enough to carry a gun, he be- 
came so enthusiastic about field sports that he could 
not be induced to go to school. When only a boy, he 
went West, and in early manhood dropped out of 
touch with his family, and was not again heard of 
until he was a Government scout at Ft. Ellis, Mon- 
tana. Afterward he settled on a ranch near Bozeman 
and went out with eastern hunting parties. About 
thirty years ago he was out with the Barings, and 
with Chas. R. Flint. About 1903 he moved from 
Montana to San Jose, California, where he now re- 
sides at 389 North Whitney Street. He is said to 
have prospered in business, which has to do with 
automobiles, and to be quite well off. 

26. Baronett's Bridge, the first bridge across the 

270 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

Yellowstone River in the Park, built in 1871 by C. J. 
Baronett, one of the earliest occupants of the region. 
It was formed by felling tall trees across the river. 
Partially destroyed by the Nez Perces Indians during 
their passage through the Park in 1877, it was after- 
ward repaired. 

C. J. Baronett, sometimes known as "Yellowstone 
Jack," and more commonly as "Jack Barnet," was 
famous in the early days of the Yellowstone Park. 
He was born in Glencoe, Scotland, in 1829, and fol- 
lowing the traditions of his father went to sea early 
in life. He is said to have been on the coast of 
Mexico during the Mexican War, in China in 1850, 
in Australia in 1852, and in Africa in 1853. His 
wanderings in California, Africa and Australia were 
in search of gold. In 1854 he was in the Arctic Seas 
as second mate of a whaling vessel, and returned to 
California in 1855 ; was courier for Albert Sydney 
Johnston in the Mormon War ; prospected later in 
Colorado and California for gold; was scout in the 
Confederate service ; was in Mexico with the French 
under Maximilian; returned to California in 1864; 
returned to Montana the same year; later settled in 
the Yellowstone Park, where in 1870 he found the 
lost T. C. Everts ; was in the Black Hills in 1875, 
and a scout in the Indian wars of 1876-1878. The 
story of his life, if it could have been written, would 
be interesting reading. 

27. The falls are actually about 310 feet. 

28. The Interior Department at Washington has 

271 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

published a fairly complete bibliography of the Yel- 
lowstone National Park, but by far the best account 
is given in General Chittenden's book, "The Yellow- 
stone National Park, Historical and Descriptive," by 
Captain Hiram Martin Chittenden, U. S. A., Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, The Robert Clark Co., 1895, pp. 397, 
illustrated. 

Of unusual interest also is the privately printed 
diary of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone 
and Fire Hole Rivers in the year 1870, by Nathaniel 
Pitt Langford. 

Among the early and scarce articles which were 
written to bring its wonders before the public were 
two in Scribner's Magazine, Volume H. (May and 
June, 1871), by the late Mr. Langford, and one in 
Volume in. (November, 1871), by T. C. Everts, giv- 
ing an account of his experiences while he was lost 
for thirty-seven days during the expedition of 1870. 

Gen. George S, Anderson, whose long service and 
splendid work as Acting Superintendent of the Park 
will always be remembered, possesses what is prob- 
ably the most complete existing collection of Yellow- 
stone Park literature. 

29. Now known as Hayden Valley. 

30. In early days the open country in the Yellow- 
stone Park was a great range for the antelope, and, 
as Colonel Pickett remarks, they were sometimes seen 
in the timber. We commonly regard the antelope as 
a frequenter only of open country, yet most people 
who have traveled much in the mountains have seen 

272 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

them in the timber, or among it, though perhaps never 
in very thick timber. In old times, if one entered a 
park in the mountains where antelope were feeding, 
they would be likely to try to escape through an open- 
ing leading from the park, rather than to pass through 
even a narrow strip of pine woods. On the other 
hand, I have seen them feeding in a river valley so 
heavily dotted with large clumps of willows that in 
fact the tree or shrub covered area exceeded that of 
the open prairie land. 

Because of its high altitude the Yellowstone Park 
was only a summer range for antelope, and at the 
approach of winter the herds migrated to the lower 
land, great numbers of them passing down the valley 
of the Yellowstone River, and so out on the plains. 
In spring again they worked up the valley and re- 
entered the Yellowstone Park, where usually the young 
were born. As soon as the valley of the Yellowstone 
River became more or less settled, this annual migra- 
tion resulted in the slaughter of great numbers of 
antelope, and a marked decrease in the number of 
those summering in the Park. A dozen or fifteen years 
ago the northern end of the Park was fenced, and by 
the sowing of alfalfa, efforts were made to keep the 
antelope in the Park. These efforts have been only 
moderately successful, and the number of antelope 
found in the Park has dwindled from thousands to 
perhaps not more than five hundred. They seem to 
be steadily decreasing. 



273 



Hunting at High Altitudes 



1878. 

31. Some years before — in the summer of 1875 — 
this precise country had been passed over by a small 
expedition under the command of Col. Wm. Ludlow, 
then Chief Engineer, Department of Dakota. His re- 
port to the War Department of a "Reconnaissance 
from Carroll, Montana Territory, on the Upper Mis- 
souri, to the Yellowstone National Park and Return" 
was published by the War Department, in 1876. It 
contains reports by Colonel Ludlow and two of his 
assistants on the mammals, birds and geology of the 
region passed over, and of two or three side trips. 
There are plates of a number of newly discovered 
fossils, and maps of what was then known of the 
region where Colonel Pickett hunted later. 

Col. Wm. Ludlow, as is well known, served with 
most distinguished honor during the war with Spain, 
became Major General, and died a number of years 
ago. He was one of the most brilliant, attractive 
and high-minded officers that ever served the United 
States, and his untimely death was deeply lamented. 

The town of Carroll was situated in a broad bottom 
on the south bank of the Missouri River, just south 
of the Little Rocky Mountains, and three or four 
miles east of the mouth of Little Rocky Mountain 
Creek. For several years it was a place of some im- 
portance. There were a number of trading stores 
there, one of them at one time kept by Joe Kipp, and 
around these stores had grown up a very small settle- 
ment. In 1875 it was a typical new western town. 

274 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

Carroll was one of the points to which the Indians 
came to dispose of their robes during the last days 
of the buffalo in Northern Montana, and Bloods, 
Blackfeet, Piegans, Crees and Red River halfbreeds 
resorted there in numbers at the season for trade. 

When the water was low, Carroll was sometimes 
the head of navigation on the river, for boats could 
reach Carroll when they could not get up to Cow 
Island. About 1874 The Diamond R built a road 
from Helena to Carroll, which thus became an im- 
portant freight point for Northern Montana. There 
was much travel over this route by stage and freight 
teams, and the long road winding up the gumbo hills 
was well worn. 

The high prairie and the isolated mountain ranges 
nearby were full of game, and sometimes the buffalo 
used to come down into the river bottom and almost 
invade the town, calling out the scanty population 
with all their firearms, to drive them away. 

Standing alone on the border of a debatable ground, 
which was run over by a dozen tribes, some from west 
of the mountains, and others from down the river and 
from the north and the south, Carroll suffered many 
things because of the Indians. I reached there by 
boat one scorching day in 1875 to find that the night 
before Sioux had come into the town and taken every 
horse it contained, except one cripple, which was un- 
able to travel. 

Carroll long ago disappeared, for the river, chang- 
ing its course, wore away the bottom, and presently 
what remained of the town fell into the muddy Mis- 
souri. It is still remembered by a few people as one 

27s 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

of the temporary centers in Montana of the last fur 
trading days. 

32. There were not a few mountain sheep on the 
rough buttes of the Judith, Snowy and Little Belt 
Mountains, though these would hardly be seen by 
horsemen hunting on the plains below. 

33. As already said, the river steamers procured 
their fuel from wood yards scattered along the river 
at various points between Painted Woods and Benton. 
A wood-chopper hired two or three hands, built a 
cabin in some bottom where the cotton wood timber 
was large and easy of access, chopped there through 
the winter, and in summer disposed of his pile of 
wood to the steamboat captains going up and down 
The men who ran these wood yards and those who 
chopped for them were the "wood-hawks" already 
described. They took their lives in their hands when 
they adopted this vocation, and yet, after all, com- 
paratively few of them were killed by the Indians. 
They were usually safe enough as long as they kept 
their wits about them, and were prepared for danger, 
for in the cabins in which they lived they had forts 
which were impregnable to the savages. Sometimes, 
however, they grew careless, and because they saw no 
Indians, thought that none were about, and so were 
surprised and killed. 

They were migratory population who chopped wood 
in late winter, spring and early summer, hunted in fall 
and wolfed — that is, collected wolf hides — in winter. 

Pike Landusky was one of these, who afterward 
276 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

took to prospecting in various parts of the moun- 
tains. On the south side of the Little Rocky Moun- 
tains he struck some prospects believed to be very 
good. A result of this find was that some years later 
the United States Government sent out a commission 
to purchase a portion of the Little Rocky Mountains 
from the Belknap Indians — Assiniboines of Siouan 
stock, and Gros Ventres of the Prairie, of Algonquian 
stock. Not far from the site of these prospects was 
built the town of Landusky. It is said that of late 
years the mines have been very productive. 

Pike Landusky was born in Pike County, Missouri, 
in 1847. He came to Montana in 1866, perhaps as 
a part of that migration formerly spoken of in jocular 
fashion as "the left wing of Price's Army." For 
several years after reaching the territory he mined 
at Pioneer Gulch with varying success, but at length 
moved to the Missouri River near Rocky Point and 
became a "wood-hawk." 

The following notes on his career are furnished by 
an old friend, Colonel Healy, of Montana: 

"In the autumn of 1877, Landusky and a man 
known as 'Flopping Bill,' a more or less notorious 
character, went down the river on a hunting and trap- 
ping trip. Near the mouth of the Musselshell River 
the soldiers arrested them for having in their pos- 
session a Government mule. They were taken to 
Miles City, tried and acquitted. After an absence of 
twenty-seven days, they returned to their camp on 
Squaw Creek and found the mule still alive. He had 
been left there tied to a log. This log had been nearly 
eaten up by the animal. 

277 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

"Soon after this, with a number of others, Landusky 
became interested in a trading post on Flat Willow. 
Among those at this post were Joe Hamilton, Billy 
Jackson and a number of others." The story has been 
told in Forest and Stream and was called the Woman 
from Sitting Bull's Camp. The place is now known 
as Maginnis' Crossing. 

*Tn 1882-83 the Piegans, Bloods, Crees and Crow 
Indians were camped on Flat Willow after buffalo, 
which were there in thousands. One day some whiskey 
traders came to the Indian camp, and many of the 
Indians became intoxicated. It is reported that old 
White Calf when drunk shot Pike through the jaw. 
Pike, blinded by blood and anger, shot at the first 
thing he saw, which proved to be White Calf's wife. 
When the woman fell, White Calf was frightened, 
mounted his horse and rode away to camp and the 
fight was ended. Pike and Hamilton did a big busi- 
ness trading with the Indians. In 1883, Pike moved 
to Maiden, a mining camp near Fort Maginnis and 
engaged in mining. He married the widow Dessary, 
who had five children. In the fall of 1883 Pike and 
Dutch Louis struck the Alder Gulch placer mines in 
the Little Rockies, which proved to be a good camp. 
In 1888 Pike was ranching on the Missouri River 
at Hawley Bottom, but, after a time, concluding that 
he was not cut out for a rancher, he moved back to 
the mines, and founded the town of Landusky. He 
built a fine residence, leased the August mine, and in a 
short time took out thirty-five thousand dollars in gold. 

"The Curry gang of outlaws made their headquar- 
ters in or near Landusky and were jealous of Pike. 

278 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

They managed to pick a quarrel with him in Jew 
Jake's saloon, and he was killed by Harvey Logan, 
chief of the band. Logan escaped and was never 
arrested for the crime. The widow and her children 
are now raising fruit on the Columbia River, Oregon. 

"Pike Landusky, a true friend and a man of many 
sterling qualities, deserved a better fate than to be 
murdered by a band of outlaws." 

Of the horse purchased by Colonel Pickett, "Billy" 
Hofer says : "He was named Pike, and was the only 
horse I ever saw who actually hunted, virtually inde- 
pendent of the man who was riding him. Often he 
would discover game before the rider and try to make 
his rider understand that there was something in sight. 
He was the only horse I ever saw who would try to 
keep his body hid; he would sneak up behind a tree 
and peep out to one side, almost like a human being. 
He used to like to find choice feeding places a little 
to one side of the main band. He seemed to like to 
keep such finds to himself. Now and then his pro- 
pensity for being secretive would cause him to lose 
the band. I have seen him, as soon as the horses 
were turned loose, feed away from the others till he 
got behind a bushy tree, and then work out of sight, 
keeping the tree between him and the other horses. 
He would look back to see if the others were watch- 
ing him or following him ; then he would slip behind 
a clump of little trees or round a hill, occasionally 
peeping out to see if other horses were in sight; if 
they worked away he would be obliged to follow, be- 
cause he did not want to be left entirely alone. 
Several times when he lost the other horses at night 

279 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

he came galloping around the camp trying to find 
them. Later Colonel Pickett purchased another horse 
that he named Red. This horse's sight became slight- 
ly defective ; Pike took him up as a companion, and 
they were partners from then on. Sometimes both 
would get lost from the other horses. Once it was 
necessary to go back to the last camp to find them." 

34. Tendoy was the chief of a band of Bannocks 
and Shoshonis and Sheepeaters. They used to live 
in the Upper Lemhi and Birch Creek country of 
Western Montana. Tendoy was a fine Indian; had 
always been friendly to the whites, and it was said 
had received a special pension, by Act of Congress, 
in acknowledgment of his services and influence in 
keeping his people from taking sides during the Nez 
Perce war, for the Nez Perces did everything they 
could to induce the Lemhis to join them. Tendoy 
was a high-class man, frank, intelligent and witty, 
with a natural dignity that was very impressive. He 
died early in 1907, aged eighty-three. Even when he 
was eighty years old his natural force was not abated, 
and De Cost Smith, who knew him well, tells of his 
riding, at that age, a bucking horse, which threw him 
once, but the old man rose to his feet, remounted and 
rode the horse. No one was present at the time, save 
Mr. Smith, but that night Tendoy told his fellows of 
the incident and laughed with them about it. 

After Tendoy's death, the settlers of Idaho, in 
recognition of his services, subscribed funds toward 
the erection of a monument to his memory. 

35. Armell's Creek was named after an old French 

280 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

trapper from St. Louis, whose Christian name is for- 
gotten. He was early in the western country, and 
in 1859 was Government interpreter at Ft. Benton. 

At certain points in the cut banks along the course 
of this stream are seams of the red clay, which the 
primitive Indians used for paint. An opportunity 
to collect this clay was never neglected when it 
offered. The Blackfoot name for Armell's Creek is 
et tsis ki ots op, meaning, "It fell on them," from the 
following circumstance : A long time ago, as a num- 
ber of Blackfeet women were digging in a bank near 
this stream, for the red clay, which they used for 
paint, the bank gave way, and fell on them, burying 
and killing them. (Blackfoot Lodge Tales, p. 61.) 

• 

36. The peak climbed must have been either Black 
Butte or Cone Butte. From either of these points 
the view is extensive. Cone Butte is a trachyte hill 
about 3,400 feet above the Missouri River. The 
Little Rocky Mountains and the Bear Paw Moun- 
tains, although distant, are very conspicuous, and the 
prairie below, dotted as it was then with feeding game 
and now with cattle and prosperous farm houses, 
was and is a goodly sight. At that time this com- 
manding position was well appreciated by the Indians, 
who used it as a lookout. The Judith Basin was in 
fact at that time a sort of debatable ground visited 
by Crows, Bannocks, Snakes, Sioux, Gros Ventres of 
the Prairie, Assiniboines, Blackfeet and Red River 
halfbreeds. Many of these tribes were at war with 
one another, and most of them, even though on friend- 
ly terms, were distinctly suspicious of each other. 

281 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Cone Butte and Black Butte or Buffalo Heart 
Mountain, as it was also called, are both volcanic 
masses thrown up through the prairie as so commonly 
occurs in this neighborhood. A break in the hills at 
the head of one of the forks of Box Elder used to 
be called Ross's Cut-Off and gave passage to frequent 
parties of Indians. 

Many years ago, in buffalo days, I climbed to the 
top of Black Butte and found on it a lookout shelter, 
built by Indians. It was composed of blocks of 
trachyte, laid in two rows, perhaps two feet apart, 
and these two rows supported flat slabs of the trachyte, 
which would keep off rain or snow. A bed of pine 
boughs covered the rocks which constituted the floor 
of this shelter. It had been in use within a few weeks, 
for the pine needles in it were entirely fresh. At this 
particular time Sioux were traveling through the 
country and taking horses and pretty much anything 
else that they could get. 

37. A. L. Reed came into Montana from Colorado 
in 1868, and from 1868 to 1871 was Indian agent at 
Ft. Browning on the lower Milk River, near where 
Dodson Station on the Great Northern Railway now 
is, opposite the mouth of People's Creek. Ft. Brown- 
ing was the Indian agency for the Gros Ventres of 
the Prairie, and some of the Assiniboines, and was 
afterward superseded by Ft. Belknap, on the south 
side of Milk River, opposite the present town of 
Harlem. Reed was popular with the upper Gros 
Ventres Indians — of Algonquin stock — and, after los- 
ing his position as Indian agent, established with 

282 




CROSSING A SNOW FIELD. 
(See page 314.) 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

Bowles — under the style Reed & Bowles — a trading 
post on Big Spring Fork of the Judith River. This 
trading store was in operation in 1875, and at the 
same time there was a small branch store at the 
mouth of the Judith River, known as Ft. Claggett. 
About 1909 Reed was in a soldiers' home near Los 
Angeles, California. He died in Seattle, Washington, 
in the summer of 191 2. 

38. Lovell H. Jerome graduated from West Point 
in the class of 1870, and for some years saw service 
on the plains. At the battle of the Bear Paws, at 
the close of the Nez Perce War, he was captured by 
the Nez Perces, and held in their camp until ex- 
changed for Chief Joseph, who was in General Miles' 
camp. Mr. Jerome is a resident of New York City. 

39. Many Indian tribes are forbidden by their 
traditions or beliefs to handle the skins of certain 
animals. The Blackfeet and perhaps the Crows may 
not — except in the case of certain persons possessing 
peculiar powers — use or handle the skin of a bear. 
In the same way the Cheyennes may not dress the 
hide of a wolf or a beaver unless certain ceremonies 
have previously been performed. 

40. The custom of the blood feud no doubt was 
universal among all Indians, but usually the killing 
of a relative might be compounded for by the giving 
of presents. On the other hand, in the heat of a 
quarrel, two or three persons might be killed before 

283 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

there was time to think about it. Among the Black- 
feet, the Cheyenne and Columbia River Indians, and 
probably all other tribes, if there was time for thought, 
satisfactory gifts would always settle the matter. I 
have known a number of Indians who in a quarrel, 
or while intoxicated, have killed their fellow tribes- 
men, and I have not met with a case where anyone 
has been killed in revenge. On the other hand, this 
unquestionably sometimes happened. In certain tribes 
it was sometimes necessary for a chief to kill a less 
important man in order to uphold his own authority. 
How this was treated by the public opinion of the 
camp depended on the tribe where the occurrence had 
taken place. Among the Piegans, it is reported that 
this -las been done a number of times, and that the 
man killing his fellow suffered no loss of prestige. 
On the other hand, the case of old Little Dog, who 
had been obliged to kill some of his fellows, and was 
finally himself killed by his tribesmen, at once sug- 
gests itself. Among the Cheyennes, such leading war- 
riors as Porcupine Bear, Gentle Horse and Old Little 
Wolf had each, through alcohol, accident or ill tem- 
per killed a member of the tribe, and all of them 
immediately lost all influence and were ostracized. 
A note on this point west of the mountains will be 
found in Ross, The Fur Hunters of the Far West, 
Vol. I, p. p. 

41. Now known as Piegan postoffice. 

42. The flesh of the bull elk during the rutting 
season is tough, strong and hardly fit to be eaten, but 

284 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

the meat of cows, calves and spikes (young bulls) is 
very good, and by many is preferred to all other game. 

\ 

43. T. Elwood Hofer says as to this: "From 
thirty-eight years' experience in the mountains of the 
West, and four trips to Alaska, I am pretty certain 
that neither the grizzly bear nor the Alaska brown 
bear or Kadiak bear breed 'annually. There may be 
exceptions to this rule. I have seen a female grizzly 
with apparently two-year-old cubs and young cubs 
with her. I have often seen female grizzlies with 
three cubs ; of course, one may be mistaken by not 
seeing the same bears every year; we can only judge 
from bears that we see in the Yellowstone Park, from 
year to year, and think we recognize the same animal. 
If they would kindly let us mark them, we could keep 
better track of their habits, and ways of life." 

It is now believed by many naturalists that the fe- 
male of the grizzly and great brown bear does not 
bear young every year. 

44. General Miles' fight with the Bannocks was in 
some hills near Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone. Here 
Captain Andrew S. Bennett was killed, and the little 
stream carries his name to-day. The hostile Bannocks 
who escaped at the first attack later attempted to join 
Tendoy's band. Tendoy had no sympathy for them, 
and later turned them over to General Miles at Fort 
Keogh. 

45. It is evident that Colonel Pickett sent into 

28s 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Martinsdale at the Forks of the Musselshell, where 
about that time a postoffice had been established. 

46. Crazy Woman Mountains — now called usually 
Crazy Mountains. At that time this was a great game 
country. Thousands of elk, deer, white and blacktail 
and antelope ranged the country, not to mention the 
mountain sheep, which were abundant on the southern 
slopes of these mountains and on to the broken banks 
of the Yellowstone. This was a favorite hunting 
ground for Bannocks, Shoshonis, Crows and some- 
times war-traveling bands of more distant Indians, 
who considered the aforementioned Indians as their 
enemies, and to be attacked if this could be done with 
prospect of success. 

A peculiar thing about these mountains is that there 
is no pass through them ; the heads of all the streams 
are very abrupt, with cliffs on both sides of the ridge. 
White-tail deer were extremely abundant on all the 
streams heading in these mountains. During the sum- 
mer there was not much game around, as it went into 
the higher country of the main range. Now scarcely 
an animal can be found here. 

47. Many plains streams have the same name in 
different tribes. Thus the Yellowstone River is called 
Elk River by most of the northern plains tribes, from 
the great abundance of elk formerly found in its 
valley. What we call the Musselshell River is a 
translation of the Cheyenne name Ihko worn' iyo' he, 
from the abundance of the unios found in its bed. 
Crazy Woman's River is from the Cheyenne word, 

286 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

implying light-headedness, lack of balance, likelihood 
to do foolish things. It is not nearly so strong as the 
word mas san' e, meaning crazy or foolish. The Sioux 
are said to have given this name to this stream, and 
it was adopted by other tribes. [See American An- 
thropologist {N. S.), Vol. 8 No. I, p. 15, Imuary- 
March, igo6.] 

48. This freight outfit which belonged to Benjamin 
Fridley, of Bozeman, was camped, as said, at the 
spring, less than half a mile from the Gap. The 
horses had been turned loose and the night-herder 
was rolling himself a cigarette at the camp-fire, when 
they all heard the stampede of the horses away from 
the Gap, the bell constantly sounding fainter. Frid- 
ley, who was familiar with Indian ways, seized his 
Winchester and ran in the opposite direction, in order 
to reach the Gap as soon as possible. By the time he 
had reached there and gotten his breath, he heard 
the horses coming. The Indians had made a long 
circle around the camp, expecting to be followed, but 
not to be headed off. As soon as the horses got close, 
Fridley began to fire his rifle and to yell. He put in 
the shots so rapidly that he turned the horses back 
to camp, and the thieves left them, and of course were 
never seen. By that time the horses were somewhat 
willing to be caught, and a careful guard was kept 
over them until they reached the Yellowstone ; in fact, 
until Bozeman was reached. Had the Indians known 
the valuable freight of these wagons, they would per- 
haps have tried to come in force strong enough to 
have killed the men and captured the whole outfit. 

287 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

The freight consisted principally of rifles and ammu- 
nition that had been shipped up the Missouri River 
with the expectation of landing it at Fort Benton. 
The low water in the river obliged the steamers to 
unload at Carroll. 



1879. 

49. Catlin had some ground for alarm, as there had 
been war parties of Indians through the country every 
year previously. They were likely to steal horses, if 
doing no other damage, and to lose one's horses so 
far from civilization, or where other horses could not 
be had, was a serious matter. 

50. The three young bulls mentioned as having not 
dropped their horns were probably spikes, or two-year- 
olds. As is well known, the young bulls always carry 
their horns much later than the older ones. 

51. Except the white-tail deer, the game mentioned 
as having disappeared was probably all moving south, 
toward its summer range in the mountains to the south 
and on both sides of the Yellowstone River, and into 
the Yellowstone Park. This range is now all fenced 
in, and not available for game, which is compelled to 
stay in the high mountains, and usually winters at 
an altitude of from five to eight thousand feet. The 
white-tail deer do not usually migrate to the same ex- 
tent as the other animals. The black-tail — or mule 
deer — commonly migrate a little before the elk. 

288 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

52. Deer or the ordinary wild ruminants of the 
plains or the mountains do not fear a horse. In early- 
days antelope were often seen feeding among horses 
and cattle on the prairie, just as at an earlier date 
they had fed among the buffalo, with which often 
they went to water and moved about over the prairie. 
A deer near or among the horses in the early morn- 
ing was formerly a common sight, and in the high 
northern Rocky Mountains I have known of cases 
where moose were found feeding among the horses in 
the morning. Every man who has traveled much with 
a pack train through an elk country in autumn has 
had the experience of having the bull elk try to drive 
off his horses. 

It is well known also that wild animals will often 
closely approach some object which, under ordinary 
circumstances, would alarm them — provided this ob- 
ject remains motionless. As I once said elsewhere, 
the deer recognizes danger only in life, and life only 
in motion. Sport With Gun and Rod, p. 755. This 
seems to be true of animals generally. 

53. Photographs of grouse in captivity have shown 
how the sound of drumming is produced. {American 
Game Bird Shooting, p. 143.) 

54. This is one of the many instances supporting 
the belief that grizzly bears do not have cubs each 
year. 

55. This is undoubtedly an error of observation, 
since mountain goats (Oreamnos) are not found in 

289 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

this region. What Catlin saw may have been young 
male mountain sheep or perhaps ewes of that species. 
On the other hand there are two perfectly good records 
for the white goat far south of this region, in Colo- 
rado, as I pointed out in a paper published many 
years ago in Forest and Stream. One of these was 
killed by John Willis, a former hunting partner of 
Colonel^Roosevelt, and only a few years ago residing 
at or near Malta, Montana. 

Goats have been traditionally reported from moun- 
tain ranges near the Hoback River, but so far as 
known, none have ever been taken there. On the 
other hand, they are found in Idaho not very far to 
the west and northwest of that section. 

56. This was known among the hunters as Elk 
Lake, and was much frequented by elk, deer and 
mountain sheep. To-day it is inclosed in a meadow 
belonging to a ranchman named Smith. 

57. The south fork of this stream is known as 
Sunlight, and the valley above the caiion is called 
Sunlight Basin, and occupied by ranchers, 

58. James Walters' cabin was on the east bank of 
the Boulder near where the Northern Pacific road 
now crosses that stream. His wife may have been a 
Crow woman, but I think she was a Piegan. Walters 
had lived with the Indians a great many years. He 
was always a little afraid the Bannocks would kill 
him in revenge for his having killed a Bannock Indian 
many years before. When the Bannocks under Ten- 

290 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

doy and Major Jim were near, he often disappeared 
for a time. The present town of Big Timber is on 
a high bank, west of where his cabin was. 

59. The stage station was on Big Timber, which 
comes into the Yellowstone from the north side, near- 
ly opposite the mouth of the Boulder. At one time 
these streams had the name of Cross Rivers. 

60. Though quite unusual, deaf mutes occur among 
the Indians more or less frequently, and I have seen 
them occasionally in different tribes. As might be 
expected, they are all extremely able sign talkers ; 
their ability to use their hands and their quick intelli- 
gence being a partial result of their inability to talk. 
Milo's wife was known as ''Dummy." She was a 
very rapid and efficient sign talker, a very good cook, 
generally cheerful and withal a willing and rapid 
worker. 

61. This was Benson's Landing, about two miles 
below the present town of Livingston. 

62. This stage station was Hopper's, where fresh 
horses were taken. 



1880. 

63. George Herendeen was one of the civilian 
scouts serving with Terry in the campaign of 1876, 
and was with General Custer during his scouting up 

291 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

the Rosebud in June of that year. With the other 
civiHan scouts, he was detailed to accompany Reno 
when that command was sent off to attack the Indian 
camp from the upper side, while Custer was to attack 
it from the lower. 

Many of these civilian scouts, as Charles Reynolds, 
Obadiah, the negro, and Bloody Knife, the Ree, were 
killed, near the crossing of the Little Big Horn, in 
the effort to check a charge of the Indians on the 
panic-stricken troops. Herendeen survived, to make 
the trip with Colonel Pickett, and in 1910 was work- 
ing in the Glacier National Park at the office of Major 
Logan, the superintendent. 



1881. 

64. The respect felt for the bear is common to 
many North American tribes, and a good example of 
the feeling toward it and the ceremonial manner in 
which it is treated is given in the Travels of Alexander 
Henry, p. 143 (New York, 1809). The Indians of 
the Northern Plains in old times greatly feared the 
grizzly bear, though in later days men were willing 
to attack, fight and kill it, but usually with apologies. 
The Blackfeet and Cheyenne would make no use of 
the flesh or hide of the grizzly bear. Women will 
not cook nor eat its flesh, nor dress the hide. They 
seem to fear that the spirit of the bear may injure 
them and usually no persuasion will induce them to 
undertake the work of tanning a hide. Yet this feel- 
ing is not universal among the Indians, and in some 

292 



Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 

tribes where the bear is tabu, it is possible to find 
a captive woman from another tribe who does not 
fear the bear, and is wilHng to do the work. Certain 
medicine men are at liberty to wear about the head a 
fillet of dressed bear hide, and of these some may sit 
upon a bear robe ; but these are few. Many people do 
not feel free to speak the bear's name, but instead 
call him "sticky mouth." Among the plains Indians 
I have not heard of any story implying the descent 
of people from the grizzly bear. 

65. This is Bennett's Creek, where Captain Bennett 
was killed in 1878. See Note 44. 

66. They make the noise partly with the throat, 
and do it either inhaling or exhaling the air. Though 
not a loud noise, the sound seems to carry a long dis- 
tance. It can be heard three-quarters of a mile away. 
I know of no sound or cry made by an animal that 
it can be compared to. 

A matter that is scarcely, or not at all, mentioned 
in books on natural history is the early life of the 
young calf elk. As Colonel Pickett says, the cow elk 
keep close together for protection, and usually the 
calves do not keep close to their mothers, but herd 
together in a bunch by themselves ofif to one side of 
the cow, much as young buffalo calves keep by them- 
selves at a similar age. Sometimes these calves make 
a great noise, calling almost constantly, either to each 
other or for their mothers. The call is not a bleat, 
nor a bawl such as is uttered by the domestic animal 
of the same age, but rather a shrill, high-pitched 

293 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

scream, and when a number of calves are uttering 
it, practically at the same time, they make a great 
din. I recall that the first time I ever heard it the 
mountains were clouded in a heavy mist. I did not 
know what caused the sound, but my companion knew 
and told me, and expressed the belief that the calves 
were calling for their mothers, having lost sight of 
them in the thick fog which had suddenly come up. 
In later years I often heard the sound in fair weather. 

67. T. E. Hofer writes me : "All the bears killed by 
Colonel Pickett, on this hunt, were secured by using 
hollow pointed balls. In one instance only was a 
solid ball used, and that on a wounded animal run- 
ning away quartering. The ball entered from back 
of hip, passed diagonally through him, lodging in the 
point of his shoulder and bringing him down. The 
first shot with the hollow pointed ball would have 
caused his death in a short time, but Colonel Pickett 
took no chances from an animal escaping for the want 
of a few shots, in a case where it showed vitality 
enough to run. This bear weighed something over 
700 pounds." 



294 



IN THE OLD ROCKIES 

It has occurred to me to write, in the form of 
two stories, of three days' hunting in the old 
Rockies. One of these deals with days upon which 
the memory loves tO' linger — days full of adven- 
ture, of unusual incident and of success. The other 
is of a day when only bad luck seemed to attend 
efforts in the way of climbing and covering ground 
which only the enthusiasm of the twenties enables 
one to put forth. I shall write of this last day 
first, because, as I think Fielding said, a tale, like 
a carefully prepared meal, should grow in interest 
or spicy flavor as it progresses. 

With my friends Charles Penrose and Granville 
Keller and an exceedingly lazy and generally 
worthless boy, Frank, whom we had hired to look 
after the horses, we were returning tO' Bozeman, 
after about two months' successful hunting among 
the headwaters of the Stinking Water and Upper 
Yellowstone Rivers. At the head of Sheep Creek, 
a small tributary, I think, of Trail Creek, we had 
turned off the direct route in order tO' spend our 

295 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

very last days of the hunt trying to get a good 
mountain sheep head. The time of the year was 
early November, and there were then plenty of 
sheep in this locality, for they had already come 
down from the higher mountains. Before this, I 
had had experience in hunting sheep, but up to 
that time I had not — nor have I yet — been success- 
ful in getting a very good head. I have grown to 
believe that, when it comes to hunting Rocky 
Mountain sheep, I am a Jonah, although it has 
been my good fortune to be quite successful in 
hunting other kinds of American big game. 

One morning, the last of our hunt, I arose long 
before daybreak, prepared and ate a hurried break- 
fast and got well started by starlight. As has 
always been my custom when still-hunting, I went 
alone. 

Before there was strong daylight I ran across a 
bunch of sheep, and I am ashamed to say that I 
fired at them, without knowing whether or not 
there was a good ram in the bunch. In the dim 
light I seemed to see a big sheep, and fired at it on 
the chance that it was a ram. I was gratified, on 
going over to the spot at which I had seen the 
sheep, to find that I had made two^ clean misses, 
since their tracks showed that there were several 
ewes and lambs in the bunch. At the time I was 

296 



In the Old Rockies 

using a splendid English Holland & Holland 
double express hammer rifle, .450 caliber, the shells 
being loaded with something like 120 grains of 
Curtis & Harvey black powder and heavy solid 
lead bullets, containing about 1-20 tin. I have 
always believed in plenty of lead, backed up by 
plenty of powder, and it is rather hard far me to 
become reconciled to the modern high power rifles. 
My experience with them at ranges over one hun- 
dred yards — that is, after the bullet has settled 
down and is rotating steadily on its major axis — 
has not been as satisfactory as with the old-time 
ammunition. I am told that there are new and 
very effective methods, with which I am not 
familiar, of making the small bullet expand with- 
out splitting into several pieces, even after it has 
settled down and its rear end is not wobbling about 
like a top before it "goes to sleep" — as we used to 
say when we were boys^ — which is supposed to be 
the cause of their making such terrible wounds at 
short ranges. If so, the modern rifles certainly 
have many and great advantages over those of the 
old style. 

About sunrise I found myself a long way from 
camp, and an hour or so later saw in the distance 
a band of sheep lying down. With my glass I 
could see a fine ram among them. As the wind was 

297 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

wrong, I made a very long detour, and at the end 
of more than an hour found myself behind a 
rock, which I had long before selected as the point 
from which I would attempt a shot. Just as I was 
about to peer cautiously around the rock. I felt the 
wind hit me in the back of the neck, and an instant 
later came the sound of scampering feet and all I 
could see as I ran around the rock was a sheep 
vanishing behind another big rock a hundred yards 
away. 

Cursing my luck, but knowing that there was 
very little use in attempting to follow them, I 
wended my way toward another mountain, and as 
the sheep happened to be going my way, I more or 
less followed their trail, not with any hope of 
seeing them again but simply because their way 
Avas my way. Reaching the other mountain, I 
found myself in open pine and juniper timber, and 
to my great surprise soon noticed from the sign in 
the snow that the sheep had scattered; in fact, had 
commenced to feed. I of course devoted myself 
to the track of the big ram and proceeded as care- 
fully as if walking on eggs. 

I followed him for perhaps a quarter of a mile, 
the wind being right, and this time holding true. 
I finally noticed the track pass around a very large 
juniper tree, one of those large and dense junipers 

298 



In the Old Rockies 

of Montana which many of us know sO' well and 
which would be so beautiful in our eastern parks, 
with a spread on the ground of densely foliaged 
limbs perhaps forty to^ fifty feet in diameter and 
tapering in a perfect cone to the highest branch in 
the middle. The ram's tracks were very fresh and 
39 it was the only track tO' be seen in the newly 
fallen snow to the right or left for many yards, I 
entertained the hope that when I should get around 
the juniper I might catch a glimpse of him beyond 
it. So I carefully crept around the snow-covered 
bushy base of the tree, both barrels cocked, expect- 
ing every instant to get a shot. I continued to 
walk around the tree until I found myself on the 
side opposite that from which I had first started tO' 
go around it. The ram's track still kept ahead of 
me circling the juniper. I followed carefully. 
When I was three-quarters of the way around the 
tree I was amazed that I had .not previously 
noticed his track on that side of it, which was to 
my left when I first commenced to go around it; 
but as he kept on I followed directly after him. 
Imagine my surprise and high disgust to find when 
I had completed the circuit of the tree that there 
was the ram's track in my own boot track. No 
sign of him anywhere; only the evidence of long 
jumps in the snow, for he had doubtless started 

299 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

off at a run as soon as he got my scent. Yet I had 
not heard a sound. I then came to the conclusion 
that that particular ram was not for me, and with 
hopes still high, I proceeded to try to find another 
bunch of sheep. 

About midday I ran aross a mountain lion's 
track, practically as fresh as my own. Not having 
recently seen any sheep, and thinking that I might 
possibly get a glimpse of this lion, I followed him. 
He soon became aware of the fact, and proceeded 
to have some sport with me, for, as could be 
easily determined from the prints in the snow, he 
would wait for me to come in sight, and then 
would trot along a little further, get another point 
of observation, sit down and wait for me to re- 
appear. The country was rough, and I did not 
think it wise to make the loops to leeward so neces- 
sary in still-hunting moose in the far north, to 
come upon the game from an unexpected direction. 
After following the lion for an hour or more, con- 
stantly expecting to see him before he could see me, 
and at a moment when, unfortunately, I was keep- 
ing my eyes glued on the snow trail ahead of me, 
I saw out of the corner of my eye a dun-colored 
body flash from a tree not more than forty yards 
distant. Before I could shoot it had disappeared 
among some rocks. I afterward found that this 

300 



In the Old Rockies 

particularly provoking beast had been sitting on a 
low branch of a tree in full view all the time. Had 
I raised my eyes from the ground no doubt I would 
have had an excellent shot and would have had a 
good chance to add to my list of American big 
game one of the two kinds which I have never 
been privileged to kill ; the other being a mountain 
goat. 

Thinking that luck would change sooner or 
later I ate my meager lunch and made for camp 
over a country which I had not yet hunted. I 
found plenty of evidences of sheep but did not see 
one. Finally, however, in the late afternoon 1 
came upon the track of the biggest sheep that I 
have ever trailed in my life and to my surprise and 
gratification I found that his track was about as 
fresh as my own. I started after this sheep and 
had not followed him a hundred yards before I 
saw him climbing the rocks ahead of me at a great 
pace. Before I could cock my rifle and shoot, he 
was almost on the sky line, about a hundred and 
twenty-five yards away. I am afraid that in my 
haste I saw rather too much of the front sight and 
sent both bullets straight over his back. I sup- 
posed from his movements that he had already 
found me out and was trying to get away. 
Imagine my surprise, therefore, when as I was 

301 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

putting two new cartridges in my rifle, the ram 
reappeared on top of the hill and without a 
moment's hesitation returned full drive on his back 
trail. I gleefully said to myself, "Luck has 
changed at last," and so patiently and, as I thought, 
very coolly, waited for him to come nearer, mean- 
while admiring and counting as my very own his 
magnificent head. On he came, and not until he was 
within ten or fifteen feet of me did I wave my 
rifle at him and yell. He reared on his hindlegs, 
the most startled sheep that it has ever been my 
good or bad fortune to see. I threw the rifle to 
my face and pulled and pulled and pulled. I know 
that I came very near pulling those two triggers 
off, and before I could realize what had happened, 
the ram made a lunge into the thick underbrush at 
one side and was gone. I had forgotten to cock 
either barrel ! 

I now made my way to camp as fast as I could 
leg it, with my hat brim well down over my eyes, 
determined to look neither to the right nor to the 
left, for I had come tO' the conclusion that there 
was no use trying to buck against luck like that. I 
soon arrived at camp, and hardly waiting for din- 
ner, crawled into my sleeping bag, like Job re- 
fusing to be comforted. The next day we broke 
camp and went on to Bozeman. I hope that that 

302 



In the Old Rockies 

sheep is alive to this day — at least, that nobody 
else ever got him. 



The scene of the other day's hunting was in the 
upper Hell Roaring country, north of Yellow- 
stone Park. I think the territory is now embraced 
within the Park limits, but this was in 1883, as I 
remember, and the Park limits then were different 
from what they are now. This story antedates its 
predecessor by several years. 

Keller and I had made an early start from camp 
on horseback, intending to hunt on the high divide 
which separates the Hell Roaring waters from 
those of Bear Creek. Toward noon, as we were 
riding up a shamefully steep trail, we heard a noise 
in the brush on the opposite side of a little glade in 
front of us, and suddenly two great black backs 
appeared, rushing directly toward us. "Bear" was 
the thought which popped into the minds of both 
of us as we swung out of our saddles, unconsciously 
throwing our reins over the heads of the horses. 
As we carried our rifles in those days in a sling 
hung on the pommel of the saddles, they were in 
our hands ready for action as we landed. At that 
moment the head of a big mountain buffalo burst 
through the underbrush into the open glade. I 
have always been a quick shot, and almost as quick 

303 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

as a flash I shot straight at the center of his fore- 
head. The rifle I was using was an extra long- 
barreled .45-60 Winchester, with which I am glad 
to be able to say, grizzly, black and brown bear, 
buffalo, elk, sheep, antelope, blacktail deer, white- 
tail deer, moose and caribou have been killed. The 
bullet struck fair in the center of the forehead, as 
we afterward learned, but did not alter the speed of 
the buffalo any more than if a fly had alighted on 
him. At that moment Keller called out, "Shoot 
the second buffalo! Shoot the second buffalo!" 
and I realized then what I had not before seen, 
that the second buffalo was a much larger bull. 
Both were very old "stub horns." Keller, who 
had been an old buffalo hunter on the Montana 
plains, subsequently said that it was the largest bull 
buffalo he had ever seen. I heard him shoot once, 
and then, as he afterward told me — I had never 
seen a wild buffalo up to that moment — he leaned 
back and greatly enjoyed seeing me pump bullets 
into the big bull. We actually had to jump out 
of the way of those buffalo' to let them pass. At 
that short range it was next to impossible to miss. 
I think I put twelve bullets in all into the big bull 
before they both passed out of sight over a nearby 
ridge. I was greatly excited and wished to follow 
them, but Keller said, "No, let's first get the horses 

304 



In the Old Rockies 

if we can." In about five minutes we found them 
on the edge of a precipice snorting and trembling 
violently. There was small wonder that they were 
frightened, for, beyond doubt, they had been in 
danger of being run down by these two bulls. 

After we had taken the saddles off the horses 
and picketed them, Keller said, "Now it is time to 
go' and see what we have done. I could see the 
dust fly every time your bullets struck, so that I am 
pretty sure you will get your bull all right. I know 
that I will get mine unless my bullet struck a little 
too far back." After going over the ridge where 
the buffalo had passed, we soon saw the big bull 
standing up against a stunted pine tree in a rather 
remarkable position. He was standing upon his 
hind feet but his forelegs seemed to be doubled 
under him. He did not move at our approach, 
and yet he looked so very lifelike that we dared not 
go near him for fear that he might turn on us. 
Finally I got a stone, while Keller stood with his 
rifle ready, and throwing the stone at the buffalo 
hit him fair in the head. He did not move, and 
on going up to him we found that in falling he had 
fallen against this stunted pine tree and was sup- 
ported partly by it and partly by the remnant of 
an old stump which we had not seen. Having 
satisfied ourselves that we had this fellow all right 

30s 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

we went on a little further and found the other 
bull slowly walking about, but very "sick." I fired 
two or three shots into him and brought him down. 
We now cut out such portions of the meat as we 
could utilize and began to skin out the heads. Both 
buffalo showed the effects of old wounds, and while 
skinning out the head of the big bull we cut into 
a horribly smelling sack at the base of one ear, out 
of which sack fell a small round bullet, evidently 
fired years before from an old muzzle-loading 
Kentucky rifle. We also took from under the 
hide of this buffalo an old 500-grain U. S. Service 
.45-caliber bullet. His great size had evidently 
made him a target before he finally fell tO' my .45- 
60. It was so late before we finished our work 
that we did not try to return to camp that night 
but rolled up in our saddle blankets and slept under 
a big pine not far away, after making the best 
supper we could on tough buffalo steak. 

The next morning, after quite a circus with the 
horses when we tried to load the scalps upon them, 
we made our way tO' camp, I very happy in having 
killed my first buffalo and that this was not only 
one of the then so-called mountain bison, but an 
unusually large bull. 

A few days later I decided to set out on foot 
alone and hunt over the same general region for 

306 



In the Old Rockies 

sheep, for It was then an excellent sheep country. 
I started before daybreak, and shortly after sun- 
rise passed a little glade or grassy open space In a 
pine forest, In which open space had fallen a good 
bull elk, which Keller and I had killed two 
weeks before, the head and horns of which were 
hung up quite high between two small pine trees 
which grew from the same stump on the edge of 
the little glade. As I passed by this elk carcass I 
noticed that something had been feeding on It. 
Whatever animal It was, It had been so dainty In 
Its feeding that I suspected It was a mountain Hon 
rather than a bear, although I knew the former's 
predilection for freshly killed meat. All day I 
hunted faithfully, and going to the two buffalo 
carcasses on the high divide found that bears had 
visited and were feeding on them. After picking 
out a good place where we could camp when we 
should go to watch these carcasses, as we had 
planned tO' do as soon as we ascertained that bears 
had found them, I hunted carefully most of the 
way back to camp. I do not remember ever hav- 
ing taken a much longer walk than on this occasion 
or having hunted more faithfully, yet not a hair or 
a hoof of living animal did I see. Recognizing 
by a certain big red cliff that I was near the spot 
where the elk carcass lay, I concluded, as it was 

307 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

then near 4 o'clock in the afternoon and as I was 
tired, that I would go over to the elk carcass and 
watch by it for an hour or two on the remote 
chance that the animal which had been feeding 
upon the carcass might return. I selected a spot 
well to the leeward of the carcass in the edge of 
the slender pine trees on the opposite side of the 
open glade from that nearest to which the elk car- 
cass lay. I laid my rifle against a little sapling, 
and sitting down leaned back against a rock, which 
I remember was exceedingly comfortable and fitted 
my back exactly. The chance that a bear or moun- 
tain lion would visit the carcass at that time of the 
day was so slight that, becoming drowsy, I was 
very willing to take a nap. 

How long I slept I do not know. I remember 
getting on my feet, stretching my arms, pulling out 
my watch, looking at it and then sleepily forgetting 
what time it was. I looked at my watch a second 
time, saying to myself, "Five o'clock ! I had better 
go to camp," took another stretch, yawned and 
then turned my head toward the little open space 
in which the elk carcass lay. 

Over on the other side of the little opening in 
the pine trees was a large grizzly bear, looking 
as good-humored and as inoffensive as any bear 
which we have in our Zoological Gardens in Phil- 

308 



In the Old Rockies 

adelphia. The wind was blowing strongly and 
directly from the bear toward me, which accounts 
for her not having either seen or smelt me. When 
I first saw her — it proved to be an old she bear — 
she was looking directly at me. I think she must 
have indistinctly noticed some movement on my 
part. Although my heart was in my throat at such 
an awakening, I retained enough sense not to move 
again, for I had not yet, figuratively speaking, com- 
pleted my yawn, and my arms were still out- 
stretched. As soon as she turned and looked in 
another direction I reached down for my rifle, 
cocked it and sprang to the edge of the opening. 
I instinctively knew that we would have it out then 
and there, and that there was no use in running. 
Leaning up against a small pine tree, with noth- 
ing except it between the bear and me, I watched 
her walk around the opposite side of the opening, 
which was not more than thirty or forty steps 
across. As I watched her the bear noticed the 
skull and horns of the elk which were hung up 
between the two small trees as described. She 
swung herself easily up against these trees — her 
head moving constantly, otherwise I would have 
shot long before — and made an ineffective reach 
for the elk head and horns. Not being quite able 
to reach them, she waddled up closer to the tree, 

309 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

tip-toed and got hold of one elk horn and pulled 
the skull down opposite her mouth, evidently ex- 
pecting to find the head full of maggots. She there- 
by wedged the horn between the two small trees 
with such force that it took us a long time the next 
day tO' get it free. We had cleaned the head so 
carefully that she was disappointed in getting her 
hors d'oeuvre of maggots. With a disappointed 
munch through the skull, and after cuffing it with 
her paws, she dropped lazily, but gracefully, to the 
ground and made straight for the carcass, there- 
fore almost directly toward me. She placed her 
forefeet on the carcass, first turning her head 
toward the part which was away from me, and 
then toward the end which was nearest me, at 
which moment she saw me for the first time. 

Without an instant's hesitation and with her 
appearance now that of furious rage, her little eyes 
curiously green, she charged like lightning, utter- 
ing meanwhile a low whine, while her mouth was 
wide open. I jerked my rifle down, having deter- 
mined to put it in her mouth and pull the trigger 
when she should reach me, because I wisely con- 
cluded there was no chance of checking such a 
charge with my .45-60. When she reached a point 
less than five rifle lengths from me she came to a 
sudden halt, with her feet planted well before her, 

310 



In the Old Rockies 

and looking me straight in the face, stood stock 
still. Whether she would have turned tail in an- 
other instant and run from me I do not know. It 
is not improbable. 

Here was the opportunity for which I had 
waited so long, for it was the only moment from 
the time my eyes first fell upon her — and they did 
not wander very far from her during this time^ — 
during which she kept her head perfectly still, and 
I did not dare shoot at any other portion of her 
body. I threw my rifle to my face as quickly as 
I could and fired at her left eye. At the shot, she 
arose upon her hindfeet and danced for all the 
world like a trained dancing bear back to the spot 
where the elk lay, and then fell backward almost 
across the elk carcass. I had hit her rather too 
high, with the result that I had lifted off a small 
portion of the top of her skull, but this I did not 
know then. I ran up to her thinking to finish her 
off with a second shot. Then I was possessed with 
a desire to be able to say that it had taken only 
one bullet each to kill my first and second grizzlies, 
for I had killed a smaller bear several weeks pre- 
vious to this. So I stood over her with my rifle 
pointed at her head and in glorious excitement 
watched her struggles grow less and less until she 
lay still. T then walked around her, about the 

3" 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

proudest youngster in that part or probably any 
other part of the country. 

Wishing to make sure, however, that she was 
really dead, I playfully caught hold of her right 
hindleg — she was lying almost flat on her back — 
and gave it a long, strong pull. What the phy- 
siological effect of this action on my part was I 
do not know, but I do know that with an un- 
earthly sort of a groan she rolled over on her side. 
This was too much for me. My nerve had held all 
right until then, but at this particular moment it 
oozed out somewhere. All I can remember is 
that I took out through the woods at the greatest 
gait I think I have ever employed, distinctly 
hearing the bear behind me, and almost feeling 
her hot breath on my back as she made jump 
for jump with me. After I had run about a 
hundred yards, as far as I could at that gait, I 
whirled around, for my nerve or what was left of 
it had slowly returned to me. Somehow I had 
kept hold of my rifle, and I was prepared to do or 
die. To my utter surprise, there was no bear in 
sight. I sneaked cautiously and shamefacedly back 
nearer and nearer to the little open glade, where 
I found the bear and the elk lying where I had left 
them, one as dead as the other. 

This bear was a well-grown, but rather lean 
312 



In the Old Rockies 

female, not weighing a thousand pounds by any 
means, but probably weighing between four hun- 
dred and five hundred pounds. In fact, she was a 
very good-sized grizzly — one of the largest, and 
certainly the tallest which I have ever shot. 

Daniel Moreau Barringer. 



313 



IBEX SHOOTING IN THE THIAN SHAN 
MOUNTAINS 

In the late winter of 1908, Chew and I decided 
on a shooting trip in the following summer to the 
Thian Shan Mountains, in Chinese Turkestan, 
where we knew there were many ibex — carrying the 
largest horns to be found anywhere — with a chance 
for sheep and wapiti; the sheep being the far- 
famed Ovis poll. The State Department had our 
passports vised for us at Pekin — thus giving us the 
necessary permission to travel in Mongolia — and 
sent to our" Embassy in London, while our Am- 
bassador at St. Petersburg got for us permits to 
import rifles and cartridges into Russia, together 
with permission to travel in Russian Turkestan. 

In London we tried tO' get some visiting cards 
with our names in Chinese on them, but were unable 
to do so. These cards are of thin paper, 3^ x 
73^ inches, white on one side, red on the other, 
with the name written on the red side in black ink. 
It is important that the name on the card should be 

314 



Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

exactly like the name on the passport. These 
cards are left at every opportunity. 

At the Army and Navy stores in London we 
bought our camp beds, folding candle-lamps, two 
large tents, twO' small shelter tents for servants 
and to use when away from the main camp, a fold- 
ing table, a couple of camp chairs of the Roorkee 
pattern, and two hot water plates, which later we 
found most useful when the weather was cold. 
We also bought three thermos bottles and a couple 
of haversacks to carry lunch in. My battery con- 
sisted of a double 360 rifle by Fraser of Edin- 
burgh, with a single rifle of the same caliber in case 
of accident, and a shotgun. I had a pair of field 
glasses and a large telescope by Steward, of Lon- 
don. The glasses were used in finding game, the 
telescope in examining more closely the game when 
found, and also in watching ibex when a stalk was 
impossible. If I were going again, I should take 
an extra pair of glasses in case of accident, and for 
the men, who soon learned tO' use them. A couple 
of pairs of good shooting boots with plenty of nails 
and with iron heel-pieces with spikes, completed 
our outfit, while for clothes we had Norfolk jackets 
and knickerbockers of a neutral color. 

When in London I tried tO' get an interpreter 
who could speak English and Russian, but with- 

31S 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

out success, and it was not until we reached 
Moscow that we engaged a man who had good 
recommendations, but who was absolutely incom- 
petent, besides being a liar and a thief. This is a 
most difficult as well as the most important position 
to fill, as few Englishmen speak Russian and fewer 
still Turki, the language of the country. I think, 
however, that anyone taking this trip would do 
well to give up the idea of engaging a man who 
could act both as interpreter and caravanbash or 
caravan leader, contenting himself with an active 
young man who could speak Russian and English. 
Such a man could be gotten through any of the 
American firms doing business in Russia. 

From Moscow the train runs daily to Tashkent, 
making the trip in a leisurely manner in five days, 
while once a week a wagon lit is put on. The first- 
class cars are very comfortable. Tashkent, which 
means "stone camp," is quite a large town, having 
a population of 170,000, and is divided into the 
old or native city and the new or Russian city. 
The hotel is good, though expensive, and there are 
good shops, where we bought some cocoa as well 
as other supplies, which we could just as well have 
gotten further on and so have saved much time and 
trouble. 

We bought a tarantas for ourselves, as well as 
316 



Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

a baggage wagon for our outfit and men, for we 
engaged here as servant and cook a man who 
could speak Russian and Kirghiz, and who' proved 
most excellent, A tarantas has a body built on 
poles stretched between the front and back axles, 
without springs of any kind, except such as are 
furnished by the yielding of the poles, which is not 
much, and has a hood like a mail phaeton, with a 
place at the back for a trunk, as well as a seat for 
the driver. It is drawn by three horses put to in 
the usual Russian fashion, with the center horse 
trotting in the shafts, the other two galloping. 
The tarantas for the servants and luggage was 
longer and fitted with a canvas cover, like an old- 
fashioned prairie schooner. 

The road to Kuldja and the Przevalsk is a post 
road, the charge being three kopecks per horse per 
verst, with a few kopecks to the driver. A kopeck 
is one-half cent ; a verst, two-thirds of a mile. This 
includes a tarantas, but we had our own, to save 
time and trouble in changing luggage at each post 
house, as we usually did five or six stages a day. 
The road is both dusty and rough; so' rough, in 
fact, that some quinine pills in a bottle were re- 
duced to powder — although packed in a medicine 
case in my trunk, the medicine case being rolled 
in flannel underclothes — while the long lines of 

317 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

camels, often two hundred in a caravan, and the 
wagons transporting supplies grind the rich soil 
to the finest powder, which invades everything. 

The post houses are very clean and neat, having 
two rooms for travelers, a large one with a smaller 
opening off it; the walls are white-washed and the 
floors of brick, while in the larger room hangs an 
Ikon, a picture of the Tsar and a calendar in 
Russian of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. 
At the post houses one can usually get eggs and 
the brown bread, together with the ever-present 
samovar for tea. A tariff, of course in Russian, 
hangs In each room, stating the prices of the samo- 
vars, which was usually ten kopecks, and other 
charges, together with the cost of repairs to tar- 
antasses. A paper should be procured from the 
Chief of Posts, either at St. Petersburg or Tash- 
kent, giving the right of way over everything but 
the mails. This is important, as the keepers of the 
post houses have a supreme contempt for everyone 
but officers. Although it was midsummer, the 
windows, as a rule, were sealed by strips of paper 
pasted over them, and I am afraid we were 
thought mad in having them opened. 

We had intended making Kuldja our starting 
point, but when In Tashkent were advised to go to 
Przevalsk, on the eastern end of Issa Kul, a lake 

318 



Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

about one hundred miles long, as here we were 
told were the best hunting grounds. Ten days' 
easy travel brought us to Przevalsk, where we 
were very well received by the Governor, and spent 
five days getting together our hunters, ponies, and 
other things. Then, just as we were about to 
leave for the shooting grounds, we received word 
that shooting was forbidden, and that we must 
return. We asked permission tO' cross the border 
into China at Naryn Kul, a couple of days away, 
but even this was denied us, and we were delayed 
for more than two weeks getting the necessary per- 
mission from our Ambassador at St. Petersburg. 

The day after our arrival, the Governor called 
upon us, asking us to lunch with him next day, 
which we did, and while waiting for lunch he had 
his servant produce several heads of ibex and 
sheep, which he offered to give me, saying, "Now 
you need not go to the fatigue of shooting these 
yourself. If you want more I shall send for them." 
It was difficult to make him understand the Anglo- 
Saxon idea of sport, more especially as every word 
had to go through the interpreter, who could not 
understand it either. 

The delay was all the more exasperating, as we 
could see our hunting grounds from our bedroom 
window, and every day native hunters were bring- 

319 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

ing in heads of Ovis poli, ibex and roe deer for 
the Director of the School, who also supplied 
museums, while everyone frankly admitted that 
there was no reason why we should not go wher- 
ever we wished. 

At length, on July 3, after having been at 
Przevalsk since June 1 6, we received permission to 
cross the border at Naryn Kul, and were so glad 
to be underway once more that we started at once, 
traveling well on into the night. The next day 
brought us to Karakara, in the middle of a large 
plain, where for three months in the summer a 
great fair is annually held. Hither come the 
nomadic tribes from considerable distances — 
Kirghiz and Kazaks, to purchase for the follow- 
ing year all articles which they cannot make for 
themselves. The Fair is laid out in streets with 
wooden booths, each street or portion of a street 
being devoted tO' one article — such as saddlery, 
cooking pots, and so on — while on the outskirts of 
the town a brisk trade Is carried on in horses, 
camels, cattle, sheep and goats. We spent the day 
here, wandering through the bazaars, and could 
not but admire the manner in which the bazaar 
master kept order. 

In the evening we traveled on again, and In the 
morning, just as we neared Naryn Kul, had a 

320 



Ihex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

superb view of Khan Tengri, rising in a snow-clad 
cone to 24,000 feet. So high were the neighbor- 
ing mountains that it did not appear to tower 
much above them. At Naryn Kul we found a 
German baron, with one of Hagenbeck's men, 
hunting on the Muzart, a river running into the 
Tekkes just beyond the boundary. Of course, we 
did not wish to conflict with them, so after a con- 
sultation with our hunters, we decided to go to the 
headwaters of the Kok-Su, a large river running 
into the Tekkes from the south, as this was the 
only other place where we would find Ovis poll. 
We got away at noon the next day, and soon 
crossed the boundary, here unmarked, into China 
or Katai, as it is called, from which no doubt 
Marco Polo got the name Cathay. The Tekkes 
valley, where we entered it, is about forty miles 
wide and covered knee-deep with rich grass, while 
on either side rise the snow-covered mountains 
upon whose higher slopes grow forests of spruce. 
While I have never been in Kashmir, I have been 
told by men who have seen both, that the valley of 
the Tekkes far surpasses it, not only in grandeur, 
but in beauty, and I cannot imagine a more beau- 
tiful sight than this valley with the darker green 
of the forests against the vivid green of the lower 
slopes, which look as if cared for by a giant: 

321 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

gardener, while above all glaciers and snow-fields 
glisten in the sun. 

At the end of the next day's march, we sent back 
the wagons to Naryn Kul, as the Agoyas, one of 
the numerous rivers running into the Tekkes, was 
impassable for them; and for the next four days 
we traveled eastward down the valley with our 
stuff loaded on bullocks, getting fresh ones each 
morning, as well as fresh ponies, so that we could 
make long marches, not having to think about our 
animals. 

The usual plan was tO' send ahead tO' the next 
village an orderly, or jigit, who would have two 
yuartas awaiting us — thus saving pitching our 
tents — with a sheep neatly butchered for our use 
and fresh transport for the next day. The usual 
price was twenty-five cents a day for each animal, 
including the wages of the men. 

In describing the yuartas and people I cannot 
do better than quote William de Rubenquis, a 
monk, who visited Tartary in 1253, and who in 
his report to St. Louis of France wrote as follows : 
"They have no settled habitation, neither know 
they to-day where they shall lodge to-morrow. 
Each of their captains, according to the number of 
his people, knows the boundary of his pasture and 
where he ought to feed his cattle, summer and 

322 



Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

winter, spring and autumn. Their houses they 
raise upon a round foundation of wickers, arti- 
ficially wrought and compacted together; the roof 
consisting of wickers also, meeting above in one 
little roundel, which they cover with white (or 
black) felt. This cupola they adorn with a variety 
of pictures." 

On our way down the Tekkes we were met by 
an escort sent by a Manchu General, Fu Chen, who 
was inspecting the country, asking us toi lunch with 
him at his yuarta. Of course we accepted, although 
we knew little of Chinese etiquette save to keep on 
our hats and not tO' drink the ceremonial tea until 
we were leaving, while if he drank his first It was 
a sign the interview was at an end. The lunch 
lasted from one until five, with twenty-eight courses 
and quantities of cognac, ending with music by his 
private band, and it was well on In the next day 
before we could think of food again, politeness 
requiring that we should eat of each dish. No 
sooner was lunch over and we had reached our 
yuarta than a servant appeared with Fu Chen's 
card and a present of a sheep and some flour and 
rice; so we prepared to^ receive our guest, at the 
same time getting out some American tobacco as a 
present in return. For his amusement we showed 
him some books with Illustrations, and both he and 

323 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

the Russian aide were much interested in Lang- 
don's book on the British Mission to Tibet, as Fu 
Chen had met Younghusband in Kashgar. He at 
once recognized Younghusband's picture, and ex- 
amined over and over again the illustrations of 
the Sacred City of Lhasa. 

We had a good deal of trouble with our packs, 
as the people had had no practice with the dif- 
ferent shaped bundles, their principal experience 
being In moving the yuartas from place to place, 
and this they did very well, putting the frame- 
work of the yuarta on one bullock and the felt 
covering on another. The better packers used a 
hitch not unlike the diamond, taking up the slack 
from time to time with a short stick. With the 
horses it was even worse, as the only pack saddles 
to be found were made to fit the round backs of the 
bullocks, and this caused the packs to slip badly. 
As the bullocks do' not sweat, their backs do not 
gall as soon or as badly as the backs of the ponies. 

When we reached the Kok-Su, we turned south 
Into the mountains, the path winding up a small 
stream until we left It to climb in the afternoon 
to a tableland about 7,000 feet above sea level, 
where we found the Kirghiz encamped In numbers, 
with thousands of horses and tens of thousands of 
sheep. These people live principally on mutton 

324 



Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

and kumyss, fermented mare's milk, which we soon 
got to like and which is mildly intoxicating. Here 
I spent a couple of days wrangling with the head 
man about transport for the next six weeks, while 
Chew killed a roebuck and saw the track of a tiger 
in a canon. 

Marco Polo, writing about 1275, says of the 
Tartars: "The women do the buying and selling, 
and whatever is necessary to provide for the 
husband and household, for the men all lead the 
life of gentlemen, troubling themselves about 
nothing but hunting and hawking, and looking 
after their goshawks and falcons, unless it be the 
practice of warlike exercises. 

"They live on milk and meat, which their herds 
supply, and on the produce of the chase, and they 
eat all kinds of flesh, including horses and dogs 
and Pharaoh's rats, of which last there are great 
numbers in burrows on the plains." 

Pharaoh's rats no doubt are marmots, which 
are very plentiful and which spoiled many a stalk, 
as their shrill whistle put every animal on its guard. 
From all we could learn, not only on the Tekkes, 
but at Kuldja, tigers are fairly plentiful in parts 
of both Russian and Chinese Turkestan, but are 
very seldom shot, none of the half dozen skins 
which I examined having a bullet hole. As a rule, 

325 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

they inhabit the great tracts of khamish or reeds, 
where they prey upon the wild pigs and are usually 
taken by poison. The Belgian fathers at Kuldja 
told us that several dozen skins are every year 
taken in the neighborhood of Urumtse, about four 
hundred and twenty miles to the eastward. 

Almost every chief among the Kirghiz had one 
or two golden eagles, which they used for killing 
game such as roe deer, foxes, and, I am told, even 
wolves; but many of these birds seem to be kept 
more for ornament than for sport, as we never 
could get the Kirghiz to fly them — although it is 
only fair to- say that the Fathers at Kuldja told us 
that they had often seen them used. On the plains 
the common little hawk, like a sparrow-hawk, was 
often carried on the wrist. 

On the second afternoon I rode over tO' a place 
where there were said to be roe, but saw only a 
couple of does. On the way, while riding along a 
hillside, we saw a couple of little hawks sitting on 
a tree some distance off, upon which my men 
spread out, calling at the same time to the hawks, 
which at once began flying in circles over us. As 
at that time I could not speak a word of the 
language, I could not imagine what was their 
object, until a little bird was put up out of the 
grass, when one of the hawks immediately flew at 

326 



Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

it, but missed it, when the bird darted in between 
my horse's feet, as I sat watching the chase. I 
let the bird remain safely where it was in the 
grass at the horse's feet, and we went on, having 
seven other flights, but in each case the little birds 
escaped either among rocks or intoi bushes. On 
many other occasions when we saw hawks they 
came to the call of our natives. 

At last I arranged for the necessary horses, two 
yuartas and a flock of thirty sheep for food, and 
the next day we were again underway up a narrow 
valley, whose sides were covered with pine. Up 
and up we went, until noon, when a halt was made 
at the last wood, where enough was gathered for 
the night; then on again over a pass, where the 
ponies floundered through snow to their bellies 
until, just as the sun was setting, we dropped into 
a little valley, making camp at the foot of the 
glacier in a meadow literally purple with pansies. 

After the day's march, the ponies are not let 
graze at once, but are tied up for two or three 
hours. I asked the cause of this, and was told 
that if a tired pony was turned loose he would 
take the edge off his hunger and then lie down for 
the night, while if he rested first, he would eat a 
good meal. The only time a pony was turned 
loose at once he did just as they said. 

327 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

So far we had seen no game, but the next morn- 
ing a little herd of Ibex, high up on the mountain, 
caused the glasses to be used, only to show that 
they were all females and young. Further on we 
passed several skulls of sheep, killed in the winter 
by wolves, and so felt that at last we were reach- 
ing the game we had come so far to find. Another 
day brought us to a place called Karagai Tash, 
meaning Stone Pines, from a range of hills whose 
sides had been eroded by wind and weather until, 
in the distance, they looked like pine trees. Here 
we made a permanent camp, turning in that night 
with hopes high for the morrow ; but a snowstorm 
for the next three days kept us In our tents, where 
most of the time was spent in bed, as we were well 
above timber line and had for fuel only a few 
shrubs, helped out with horse and cow dung. 

Khudai Kildl, my hunter, was quite a personage. 
Belonging to the Kara, or Black Kirghiz, he had 
a profound contempt for Kazaks and common Kir- 
ghiz, both of whom he used to order about, often 
enforcing his commands with a beating from the 
heavy riding whip he always carried. A fine look- 
ing, dignified man of fifty, he stood over six feet 
and must have weighed over two hundred. On his 
left arm he carried the scars of a fight he had with 
a bear when still a young man, and one day, while 

328 



Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

we were having lunch on the mountain tops, he 
told me most graphically by signs how he had 
caught the bear by the ear and killed him with his 
knife. The sheath knife he carried had a blade 
about seven Inches long, and once a week would 
have an extra sharp edge put on It, so that he 
could use It to shave his head. 

At last It cleared, and at daybreak I was off 
with Khudal Klldl In search of Ibex. We had not 
ridden a mile down the narrow valley, when he 
pointed out a little herd feeding above us on the 
hillside, only to find that again they were all 
females. While we were having lunch, about 1 1 
o'clock, Khudal KUdl spied three Ibex far off on 
the sky line among some patches of snow, and we 
settled ourselves for a long wait, as they were In 
an unstalkable position, and were not likely to 
move until afternoon. The fates were kind to us, 
as they soon got up and walked over the ridge. 
Leaving the man with the horses, Khudal and I 
went up another nullah and over the top, but could 
see nothing of them until we were well down the 
slope on the far side, when out they walked some 
distance below us In full sight, but out of range, and 
It became a case of "belly down on frozen drift" 
for over an hour In the cold wind that chilled us 
to the bone. 

339 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

At last they moved down under a ledge, 
and we crawled down until I could see one lying 
just below me a couple of hundred yards away. I 
was keen to get him, as well as to let off for the 
first time my new double 360 Fraser, so waiting 
until I had my wind — we were over 13,000 feet 
up — I fired, giving him the second barrel as he 
struggled to his feet, knocking him over the ledge. 
Letting the other two go, as I saw they were much 
smaller, we slid down the loose shale to find my 
first ibex lying dead in a little meadow of wild 
flowers — not a large head, for the Thian Shan, but 
forty-six inches with heavy horns — very good to 
begin with. 

Another successful day after ibex occurred soon 
after this on a river called the Musteban, which 
flowed into the Kok-Su. I had left the main camp 
for a few days' shooting and had reached our 
camping ground near sunset; while the supper was 
cooking Khudai Kildi and I were hard at work, I 
with the telescope, he with the glasses, spying the 
slopes high above us. We were soon rewarded by 
seeing several hundred ibex, among and above 
which was a large herd of males. Early next 
morning we started on our ponies — with a man to 
hold the horses when the climbing began, as well 
as to carry the lunch and a thermos bottle of cocoa. 

330 



Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

Our ride was a long one, as we had to avoid a 
rather nasty ford, and had not gone more than 
an hour from camp when Khudai, looking over a 
bank, pointed out a couple of roebuck lying asleep 
on a little knoll directly below me. As we were 
still a long way from the ibex, I took a shot at the 
larger of the two, the only result being that his 
head sunk to the moss, while a quick second barrel 
accounted for the second. I felt that this was 
rather a good beginning. Covering them with a 
great coat to keep off vultures, we kept on until 
we could see the ibex among the rocks on the other 
side of a great basin. Here we left the horses out 
of sight and placed the man where he could signal 
if the herd moved. The climb up the sliding shale 
was hard work, the last couple of hundred yards 
being through deep soft snow; but at last we 
reached the top and began, our stalk on the ibex 
lying among the broken rocks far below us. Very 
carefully we made our way down, an occasional 
look with the glass showing the man where we had 
left him. This side of the mountain was broken 
by small cliffs about twenty feet high, but quite as 
effectual as if they were much higher. At last our 
descent was blocked by a small ibex, so back we 
had to climb, almost to the top and down another 
chimney. Carefully looking over the rocks, v/e 

331 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

saw the ibex, fully forty in number, lying about the 
rocks. 

For half an hour we in turn used the glasses 
to pick out the best heads, far from an easy 
job when an inch or two makes such a differ- 
ence, and decided on a little bunch of six that 
were directly below us. Of these I chose the two 
which to my mind had the longest horns, and then 
asked Khudai's advice in a whisper. He took six 
little stones, arranging them in the same positions 
as the ibex were lying, and chose the two which I 
had picked. Taking a fine sight, as they were 
almost directly under us, I got the first one with the 
right barrel and wounded the second as he was 
dropping out of sight over the cliff. It took us 
some time to get down to the first ibex, which had 
never moved — a lucky thing, as if he had moved 
at all, he would have rolled some thousand feet 
further down. As it was, we had a hard time 
getting off his head and skin on the narrow ledge. 

By this time it was well on in the day, and the 
other ibex could be seen very sick, lying under a 
rock some distance away at the foot of a high wall 
of rock. He heard us coming over the sliding 
shale, but was too weak and stiff tO' climb the face 
of the cliff, although he made a gallant attempt. 
Our lunch tasted very good about 4 o'clock, after 

332 



Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

we had struggled up the mountain and down the 
other side with our heavy loads, and we reached 
camp at 7 o'clock, picking up the roebuck on 
the way. 

The first Ibex measured 43 ^ Inches, the second 
465^ inches, while the roe were 13^ and 12^ 
inches. 

Of course, we were very anxious to get sheep, 
of which a few were still to be found on the rolling 
plains to the eastward, and after much hard work 
and some weeks devoted to them, Chew got a fair 
head, while I was unsuccessful, as I could not get 
within shooting distance of the only bunch of rams 
I saw. The rams were very wild, and at this time 
of year were in little bands by themselves, usually 
occupying such a position that they could not be 
approached nearer than half a mile, often not so 
close, I think their wildness was due more to 
danger from wolves than from man, as they were 
seldom hunted by men, but were continually dis- 
turbed by the very large wolves which abound In 
this part of the mountain, while the numerous 
skeletons of old rams showed the toll the wolves 
took. I have heard it said that If a wolf can get 
within eight hundred yards of a ram he could run 
him down. 

The wolves were much like our timber wolf, 
33^ 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

although some were darker, and several times we 
saw, among the horses, yearlings and two-year- 
olds, whose flanks and hindlegs had ugly wounds. 
The old rams are the easiest prey for the wolves, 
as the great weight of their ^orns causes them to 
sink deeper into the snow or bog, and although I 
kept a sharp lookout, I never saw the skeleton of 
a ewe or young ram. This would be explained to 
a certain extent by the fact that the heads of these 
would not be so easily seen. We saw numerous 
ewes and young rams which were comparatively 
tame. 

Chew afterward got a very fine ram with horns 
55 inches on the curve and 49 inches from tip to 
tip. I noticed that this animal had, as usual, very 
thick skin over the nose, no' doubt as a protection 
in fighting; and in Kuldja I also noticed that the 
rams of the domestic sheep kept for fighting had 
this feature very highly developed. These rams 
were kept solely for fighting, just as game cocks are 
in other parts of the world; and one morning we 
offered a prize for the best ram. The rams, with 
their handlers, accompanied by numerous backers, 
soon arrived and were placed about twenty yards 
apart, being let go at the same time. As soon as 
released they ran at each other with surprising 
speed, coming together with great force and a loud 

334 



Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

crash; then, of their own accord, they backed fur- 
ther away, until forty yards separated them, when 
they would again come together, repeating this 
until one was groggy, which usually occurred after 
four or five rushes. 

For the next two weeks we hunted on the head- 
waters of the Kok-Su, some of the time being 
storm-bound or unable to hunt on account of the 
clouds being low on the mountains. During this 
time I shot six ibex, the best head being fifty 
inches, while the smallest was forty-six. I could 
have shot a great many more if I had wished to do 
so. This was not as well as I should have done, 
but I was very unfortunate in having my glasses 
washed away while crossing a river, leaving me 
only the big telescope, which I could not use for 
quick work, and often I was not sure of getting 
the best head from a herd of ibex about tO' move 
off, as the difference between fifty inches and fifty- 
four inches is not easily detected at two hundred 
yards. 

By this time our ponies were very footsore and 
thin, and we decided to go down to the Kirghiz 
encampments to renew our supply, and once more 
our men were reveling In kumyss, while we were 
forced, from politeness, to drink the tea offered to 
us as a delicacy. This tea Is compressed into bricks 

335 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

about nine inches long by five wide and a couple 
of inches thick, a piece of which is cut off much in 
the same way as plug tobacco. The tea itself is 
quite good to Western tastes, but when a lump of 
salt and some rancid butter is added to the brew, it 
leaves much to be desired. 

We spent a week at this camp, which was on a 
river called Jilgalong, once a famous place for 
wapiti, but now full of the immense herds of horses 
and sheep that the natives were pasturing here. 
Our camp was beside a river, running clear and 
cold, which should have contained trout, but, like 
all rivers running from the glaciers into the 
Tekkes, had no fish. The only game was roe deer, 
of which we shot several, usually by driving them 
up one of the numerous nullahs. These roe are a 
much larger animal than their western relatives, 
standing from thirty to thirty-four inches at the 
shoulder, with horns about fourteen inches long. 
There were some black game scattered among the 
hills, but without a dog it was useless to try to 
find them. In the scrub bordering the Tekkes, and 
more especially on the islands in the stream, there 
were plenty of pheasants, similar to the common 
English variety, with a white ring around the neck. 
On the plains there were a few bustard, both great 
and small, but very few ducks or geese. 

336 



tbex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

We were very much disappointed In not finding 
wapiti in Jllgalong, where ten years ago there were 
plenty, but owing to the constant hunting of this 
fine stag for Its horns, they are rapidly being killed 
off. The horns, when in the velvet, are In great 
demand among the Chinese as medicine, to be used 
by the women at childbirth. A large pair brings 
as much as $50, while the skins bring a good price 
at all seasons of the year. 

After a consultation with Khudal, we returned 
to the Kukturek, where we spent a couple of lazy 
days, most pleasant after our hard work of the 
past weeks, loafing about camp and shooting pheas- 
ants In the afternoon, while he looked up a friend 
of his who knew this part of the country. 

A couple of very long days found us on the 
headwaters of this stream, where we were tO' leave 
our camp, and, taking a few men, were to cross 
an Immense glacier to hunt in a country seldom 
entered by natives. 

For two days a heavy storm kept us in camp, 
but it cleared In the evening, and the third morn- 
ing found us under way at dawn, so that we might 
cross the glacier before the heat of the sun should 
melt the new snow covering It. We had much 
trouble in crossing the immense crevasses, whose 
black depths were far from pleasant to look Into, 

3Z7 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

but eventually reached the summit, and had begun 
our descent of the other side over steep rock slides, 
when the clouds, which all day had been low, de- 
scended, leaving us helpless. At last they lifted, 
and we were just moving on, when a huge section 
of the mountain just in front of us gave way, 
coming down in an avalanche, which narrowly 
missed the leading ponies. The noise was deaf- 
ening, and we were much relieved when the dust 
lifted to see our men safe. 

Down we went around a shoulder of the moun- 
tain, where high above us the men could see with 
the naked eye, and we with the glasses a large herd 
of ibex on the sky line. Chew won the toss, while 
I waited with the outfit, where I was to see an 
example of good luck often dreamed of, but sel- 
dom realized. It was i o'clock when he left, and 
for the next two hours we watched him with his 
hunter slowly climbing up the steep grass slope, 
occasionally shut from view by heavy squalls of 
hail and sleet. At last, with the big glass, I saw 
that owing to the nature of the ground, he could 
not get within shot, and was wondering what he 
would do when the entire herd, numbering about 
sixty male ibex, suddenly got up and moved 
rapidly away from him, only to turn quickly and 
charge in a body to exactly where he sat crouched 

338 



Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

behind a rock, passing within twenty yards of 
him. Time after time his double 450 roared out, 
the reports coming faintly to us. After seeing this, 
I moved down the valley a couple of miles, to camp 
on the first piece of ground that was fairly level. 
Long after dark. Chew got in with three good 
heads, and with every chance of picking up three 
more, which he did, in the course of three days, 
his best heads being 54, 52^ and 50 inches, the; 
last with a spread of 46 inches. 

At daybreak next morning I left him with my 
kit on two horses and with four men to cross an- 
other mountain to a place where our guide said 
there were wapiti. The next evening, after a long 
day over the roughest country I have ever seen, 
saw us camped in a long, narrow valley, with many 
nullahs running into it, whose sides were covered 
with grass, having here and there wide strips of 
pine or poplar. By the time I had pitched my 
little shelter tent and cooked supper, it was 9 
o'clock. Four the next morning came very quickly, 
and soon after we were off in the dark through the 
dripping underbrush to a place part way up the 
grass slope, where we could see the opposite side 
of the valley when day broke. For a quarter of an 
hour we sat shivering in the cold wind which blew 
over many miles of ice, waiting for the day, and 

339 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

as it slowly brightened in the east, we could make 
out with the glasses two little bands of wapiti and 
a single one that we saw had horns, the others being 
hinds. Before it was light enough to use the tele- 
scope, they had all gone intO' the timber, while we 
got back to camp for breakfast, just as the sun 
shone on the snow-covered peaks far up the valley. 
As the river in the canon would be in flood 
toward evening, we moved over at once, getting 
everything wet in the rather villainous ford, and 
then sat down tO' wait until evening, when we 
would go after the stag. The lay of the land was 
such that we had to wait until the wind blew down 
the canon, which we knew it would do as soon 
as the sun got near the mountains. At last the 
longed for change came, and we were off, reaching 
the place near where the stag had gone into the 
timber, as it was getting dusk, but he had not come 
out yet. However, he soon walked out near us, 
when we saw to our disappointment that he was 
a small six-pointer — that is, three points on each 
horn — and what was worse still, in the velvet, 
although it was now the first week in September. 
F'or a week I repeated this proceeding each day, 
but without seeing a shootable stag, and often nO' 
stag at all, while we could not move further up or 
down the valley, as the water was still too high. 

340 



Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

The long days sitting in camp, doing absolutely 
nothing, as I had read and reread all our books, 
and without a soul to speak to, as my Kirghiz was 
very limited, got on my nerves to such an extent 
that, after eight days, we left, reaching the camp 
where I had left Chew on the evening of the 
ninth day. Here I found quite a monument with 
a large white stone on the top, on which was cut 
a very good likeness of an ibex, with the inscrip- 
tion, "B.C., 1909. VI." and written on it in pencil 
a message saying that he had gotten six good ibex. 
Another day saw me in the main camp, where a 
good dinner was most welcome after the last few 
days of hard work on short rations. 

I was greatly disappointed not toi get a wapiti, 
but to my mind it is doubtful if I would have 
gotten a fair one even in a month. At Kuldja and 
on the road home I saw many hundred shed horns, 
which are exported, to be used as knife handles, and 
a number of pairs with the horns still on the skull ; 
but among all these there was not even a fair set. 
At Kuldja I spent much time looking for a good 
pair, offering a large price, but could find none. 
However, at the Tekkes the guide presented me 
with a splendid set shot some years ago, which 
are the best set Rowland Ward has ever seen, 
measuring as they do 563^ inches on the curve, the 

341 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

next best being a set 54 inches, shot ten years ago 
by Mr. Church, the author of "With Rifle and 
Caravan in Chinese Turkestan." While in the 
canon where we went for wapiti I saw the tracks 
of a bear, but could not find him in the thick 
brush, where no doubt he was living on wild 
currants and other fruit, and in all our travels we 
did not see any sign of leopard, either of the com- 
mon variety or the snow leopard. 

If on starting I had known as much about the 
country as I knew when we left it, our trip would 
have been much more successful. I have made no 
mention of the several mistakes we made. First, 
we did not know until we reached Tashkent that 
there is for sale a map showing all the post roads 
with the distances between stations. If we had 
known that there was a post road to Kuldja from 
the north, we would have shot in the Altai first. 
Secondly, in July and August all the rivers are in 
flood, and at that time very apt to delay travel 
until a few cloudy days prevent the melting of the 
glaciers, thus lowering the streams. Thirdly, that 
Kalmuks are better hunters than any other tribe, 
and fourthly, that it seems true that the biggest 
heads are in the highest mountains. 

If I were to take the trip again I should go to 
the Altai in the north for argali (Ovis ammon) , 

342 



Ibex Shooting in the Thian Shan Mountains 

then travel to Kuldja by river steamer and tar- 
antas to shoot in the Thian Shan from about the 
middle of August until October, engaging my men 
at Kuldja through the Belgian missionaries there^ — 
two most agreeable gentlemen who have met every 
traveler from Littledale in 1882 until the present 
time. I should buy all my supplies except cocoa 
and condensed milk at Vernie or Jarkand, and in 
Kuldja itself. The condensed milk in Russia is to 
be found at the apothecaries. 

I have made no mention of the great number of 
ibex to be found in these mountains. Often we 
saw at one time several herds, each with over a 
hundred ibex. While the actual hunting of ibex is 
the grandest sport that I have ever had, one must 
not forget the frequent rainy days or those on 
which the clouds were low in the mornings, thus 
delaying the start until it was too late to make a 
successful day's hunt. On days such as these, time 
hangs very heavy on one's hands, as it does also in 
the afternoons on days when we moved camp. 
Now that I am home, however, I look back with 
great pleasure on the days spent on the mountains, 
forgetting the times when we were delayed by bad 
weather and high water. 

Geo. L. Harrison, Jr. 

343 



SHOOTING TRIP IN NORTHWESTERN 
RHODESIA 

In the first week of July, 1908, I left England 
by the Union Castle liner Kenilworth for a shoot- 
ing trip in Northwestern Rhodesia, arriving at 
Victoria Falls on the Zambesi just three weeks 
from the day I sailed. The seventeen-day voyage, 
broken by a day at Madeira, was very pleasant, 
the weather being clear and warm, the sea smooth, 
the passengers most agreeable. The days passed 
quickly, with cricket on deck in the afternoon and 
dances gotten up by a lot of young people almost 
every evening. A comfortable train meets the 
boat on arrival, and I was soon ascending the 
mountains back of Cape Town and getting my 
first taste of South Africa as, wearing overcoat, 
gloves and traveling rug, I shivered in the cold 
mountain air, looking at the snow covered peaks 
on each side of the track. 

Then we came to the Karroo, once teeming with 
game — a great table-land, stretching north from 
the mountains, with its kopjes sharply outlined in 

344 



A Shooting Trip in Northwestern Rhodesia 

the clear atmosphere ; the same kopjes which caused 
so many "regrettable incidents" in the Boer War; 
innocent little hills, looking as if they could not 
hide a rabbit, but in whose folds had hidden marry 
a commando. 

Kimberly and Mafeking, dusty tin towns on a 
barren plain, were passed, the train reaching Bul- 
awayoi the third morning. Bulawayo is built on 
the site of Lo Bengula's old capital, but the great 
Matibili chief lies in an unknown grave, having 
disappeared badly wounded with a few of his head 
men. Several attempts have been made to find his 
last resting place, but always without success. 
Many stories are still told of the autocratic rule 
of this man, whose lightest word was law, and who 
kept in touch with every part of his Empire 
through messengers, who brought him news of 
each event. Although harsh and cruel, he never- 
theless made of the Matibili a nation of perfect 
physical specimens, brave in warfare and kindly 
one to another. 

Early the following morning I was up to catch 
the first glimpse of the great Victoria Falls, and 
while still more than twenty miles away, could see 
the rising sun shining on the towering column of 
spray, which was taken by early travelers for the 
smoke of bush fires. 

345 



^Hunting at High Altitudes 

The railroad crosses the Zambesi a few yards 
below the Falls, the train pulling in to Livingstone, 
the capital of Northwest Rhodesia, at 9 o'clock. 
Here I was met by Finaughty, my hunter, with 
word that the wagon would meet us at Kalomo, 
ninety miles further on, so we changed into the 
train for Broken Hill, stopping only to get my 
shooting license. 

That afternoon we left the train at Kalomo 
Station, and trekking through the old capital, now 
deserted, as it was very unhealthy in the rains, 
camped near a little river at sunset ; the fiery ball of 
the sun disappearing soon after making camp. The 
little river was only a river in the rainy season, and 
I did not imagine that we were going to drink the 
water the servants brought from the pool nearby, 
as it was quite muddy and had a decidedly grassy 
taste. However, one soon became accustomed to 
it, and when it was boiled, it was not so bad. Be- 
sides, we had a water barrel on the wagon, which 
we filled whenever we found extra good water. It 
is only fair to say that 1908 was an exceptionally 
dry year. The wagon trekked on at 2 o'clock in the 
morning, while we cantered on for breakfast, hav- 
ing kept a couple of "boys" with us to carry our 
beds. I should say that in this part of the world any 
native servant is a "boy," while any native is a 

346 




PACK BULL-TEKKES RIVER. 
(See page 314.) 



A Shooting Trip in Northwestern Rhodesia 

"Kaffir." As I was sitting down to the meal, a 
couple of Lichtenstein hartebeests walked out a 
couple of hundred yards away, both of which I 
dropped, thus furnishing plenty of meat for our 
men and putting every one in a good humor. It 
was just twenty-two days since I had left Waterloo 
station, London. 

A word as to my men and outfit may be of 
interest, although I am afraid the present-day 
motorist would find our progress rather slow. I 
had rented the outfit complete through an agent at 
Livingstone, who engaged for me the men and had 
stocked the wagon with the supplies I had chosen. 
First, there was the wagon, a ponderous affair of 
the old Cape pattern, capable of carrying a load 
of three tons. This was drawn by sixteen oxen 
yoked in pairs, the lead oxen led by a Kaffir and 
the team driven by Finaughty's brother Harry. 
Each ox knew his name, and would respond when 
called on, but woe to the ox that shirked his work, 
for he would have the double thong of the great 
whip about his ribs at once. William Finaughty 
and I each had two ponies for hunting, while a 
couple of black boys as servant and cook, together 
with four others for hunting, completed the outfit. 

The Finaughtys had been born in the country, 
being sons of William Finaughty, one of the old- 

347 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

time elephant hunters, whom Selous mentions as 
having stopped hunting in 1872 because the game 
was then getting scarce. Both were excellent men, 
speaking Dutch and Matibili fluently, kind to 
both animals and natives, but not to be imposed 
upon, as our men occasionally found to their cost, 
when the double thong would wind around their 
ribs for some flagrant piece of laziness. For the 
next three days we traveled on through sandy 
ridges, interspersed with little vleys^ — open spaces 
that are marshes in the rains — or, more correctly, 
I should say nights, as the wagon always left camp 
at sundown, traveling until ten or eleven o'clock, 
when the oxen were outspanned for a rest of three 
hours, and then went forward until sunrise. We 
usually slept until morning, then having a cup of 
cocoa with a biscuit, and cantering in to breakfast, 
or more generally taking a loop in search of game, 
usually getting a reed buck or oribi. 

On the third morning we found the wagon 
drawn up under an enormous fig tree near some 
native kraals or villages, whose inhabitants were 
soon flocking about camp, and from them we 
learned that eland, roan antelope and hartebeest 
were to be found in the vicinity. On the open plain 
back of camp were to be seen many odbi, a little 
antelope about twenty-five inches high with jet 

348 



A Shooting Trip in Northwestern Rhodesia 

black horns five inches long, not big game, but 
nevertheless affording very good sport as well as 
good rifle practice. Next morning we rode out 
from camp in the cold, raw dawn, accompanied by 
a dozen or more men from the nearby kraals eager 
to show us game, which we soon saw in the shape 
of a solitary bull hartebeest, a wary old fellow, 
which took some stalking to get and then only after 
a long time, as the first shot hit him too far back, 
so that it was midday before he was accounted for. 
There was much eland spoor about, so after 
a bite of lunch we went on, to be rewarded 
by seeing a little herd of these huge antelopes 
standing and lying under some mimosa trees in the 
center of quite a large plain. The absence of cover 
rendered an approach to within shot impossible, 
but the more I looked through my glasses at the 
great slate-colored bull with his bushy frontlet of 
black hair, the more I wanted his head, and I 
quickly agreed to Finaughty's suggestion that we 
should try running them down. Bending low in 
the saddle, we walked our ponies, one back of the 
other, directly toward them, in this way getting 
to within four hundred yards, when the eland 
began to move off. Then, after them we went as 
fast as our ponies could gallop, but for the first 
mile the eland held their own, the fox-colored cows 

349 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

going easily and jumping over the bushes in a 
mnnner surprising for such large animals. I had 
to ride to one side on account of the clouds of dust 
which hid the holes of ant-bears and the cracks in 
the ground; but at last, as they neared the edge of 
the timber, for which they had been making, the 
big bull was evidently done, and I was able to race 
alongside him as he lumbered on. 

As I galloped behind the herd, I could dis- 
tinctly smell the sweet odor associated with these 
animals, and which comes, I believe, from the 
fragrant bushes they browse on; the blood, even 
when dry on the hands, has a pleasant perfume. 
The ponies we were riding had just arrived from 
Cape Colony, and had never been used as hunting 
ponies. The reason for this was that almost all 
horses in this part of Africa die of horse sickness 
during the rains — the few which survive being 
known as "salted" horses, and are worth eight or 
ten times as much as an unsalted horse. Even these 
high-priced animals are not immune from the tsetse 
fly, whose bite is fatal tO' domestic animals, so that 
it is more economical on a short trip to use horses 
brought in from the Cape, when all risks, such as 
losing them — having them killed by lions or "fly" 
— are considered. 

I had never fired from the saddle, and as far as 
350 



A Shooting Trip in Northwestern Rhodesia 

I knew my pony had never heard a shot at close 
quarters, so It was with great misgivings that I 
rested my rifle across the pummel of the saddle and 
pulled trigger, with the lucky result that the great 
bull rolled over with a shot through the heart. I 
think that everyone who has shot a fair amount of 
game feels a reaction at the end of the stalk, when 
the animal yotthave been striving so hard to get lies 
at your feet; and in this case the reaction was in- 
tensified by the excitement of the gallop I had had. 
It was some time before the natives came up, and 
as it was late In the day, we cut off the head, send- 
ing it Into camp by two men, leaving the others 
with our water bottles to spend the night there, 
which they gladly did, to feast on the meat until 
morning. The next morning the women of the 
kraals brought in all the meat, which we traded 
for grain for our men and ponies, while I spent a 
lazy day about camp superintending the skinning 
of the heads, and getting a couple of good oribi 
in the afternoon. 

At this camp I got another hartebeest, a couple 
more reedbuck and a very good roan antelope, 
which I shot as he lay asleep under a tree — the 
bullet breaking his neck. Here we left the so- 
called road — a mere wagon track In the veldt — 
striking across country to a place where the natives 

351 



Hunting at High /Altitudes 

said there were a few sable antelopes. This 
meant traveling by day, and the oxen suffered 
from the heat, as they were very weak from feed- 
ing on the young grass which was springing up 
after the old grass was burned. As usual, we were 
out early next morning, and soon found an old 
roan bull standing on the open plain, which 
stretched, with only a few bushes, from here to 
the Kafue River. Luckily, some large ant hills 
gave us the means of getting within range, when 
a well-placed shot dropped him where he stood. 
Leaving a boy to keep off the vultures, we sent 
another into camp with the head, telling him to 
send out for the meat, while we rode on to look 
for more game. 

A couple of eland cows soon showed up, and as 
one had ^ very good head, I galloped after her, 
only to find it a very different matter from riding 
into a heavy bull. The chase had been in a large 
semicircle, and by the time I came to terms with 
her she was heading for the place I had killed the 
roan, and I let her gallop on for a mile or so, drop- 
ping her within a few hundred yards of the first 
animal, much to the surprise and delight of the 
boy on guard. Taking only the head, we gave the 
carcass to the people of the kraal near which we 
were camped, and that evening Finaughty called 

352 



A Shooting Trip in Northwestern Rhodesia 

my attention to the long line of women, some withi 
babies on their backs, bringing In the meat. All 
were singing, and everybody was carrying at least 
three times as much as when with groans they 
carried meat in for us. 

Another trek took us Into the sable country, but 
unfortunately the cold wind of the past few days, 
combined with the hot sun, brought on a fever, so 
it was a week before I was about. At last I could 
stand camp no longer, and although rather shaky, 
we decided to spend the day among some big trees 
which we saw on a ridge about six mlles^ away. 
Just before we reached them, however, a sable 
bull got up not one hundred yards away, standing 
broadside until I rolled off my pony and took a 
shot. Down he went, but getting up again, went 
away very sick. As I was still weak, I gave my 
rifle to Finaughty, telling him to finish him, which 
he did in a short time, as he found him tooi badly 
wounded to get up. He was a magnificent animal, 
the upper parts jet black with pure white beneath, 
and better still, a really good set of horns 46^ 
inches in length. 

At this camp we got a day's good bushbuck 
shooting in the bed of a river, now almost dry, 
with water every mile or so in pools. Putting a 
few boys in the bed of the stream, which was at 

353 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

least twelve feet below the surrounding country, 
we walked quietly along about one hundred yards 
in front of the beaters, Finaughty on one bank, 
myself on the other, firing at the buck as they 
raced up the river bed or left the stream to cut 
across a bend to another part higher up. Our 
bag was five bucks — we could have killed many 
more if we had wished — most of which fell to 
Finaughty, who, armed with my little double 303, 
made splendid practice of those fast-moving ani- 
mals. The bushbuck, to my mind, is by far the 
most sporting of the smaller antelope, carrying a 
great deal of lead and charging when cornered, 
while their sharp horns are not to be despised. 
The native women would not eat the meat for fear 
of becoming barren. 

One day while at this camp we tried to gallop 
up to a herd of roan, which were feeding with, 
some zebra on a large open plain, and getting as 
near them as we could, we let the ponies gallop 
after them at almost top speed. At the start the 
zebra and roan kept together, but before a mile 
was past the zebra were done, letting me gallop 
through them without much trouble; but it was a 
different matter with the roan. Although I got 
within twenty yards of the largest bull, I could not 
get alongside him as he galloped with open mouth, 

354 



A Shooting Trip in Northwestern Rhodesia 

and I was afraid to shoot over my pony's head, as 
he had a nasty way of ducking to the shot, most 
unpleasant in a country full of holes. For three 
miles we kept this position, and just when I thought 
the roan was done my pony gave out after blunder- 
ing over the earth of an ant wolf, while the roan 
stopped a quarter of a mile further on. The 
ponies we had were in good condition, being corn 
fed, but were not by any means fast. 

A couple of days' trek from here took us well on 
to the Kafue Flats — broad, open plains — flooded 
at certain seasons and covered with the roots of 
the grass which had recently been burnt off. As 
far as the eye could reach, the flats extended in 
every direction, covered with immense herds of 
zebra, letchwi and wildebeest, while the ground 
itself was most excellent for galloping over, as 
there were no holes or cracks of any kind. 

Camp was made near the only tree for many 
miles, and in the afternoon I was lucky enough to 
drop a good wildebeest at long range. The coun- 
try being perfectly level, stalking was impossible, 
as was also riding down the game, for as the 
animal pursued at once made for other herds, we 
soon had about 5,000 head of zebras, letchwi and 
wildebeest kicking up such a cloud of ashes from 
the burnt grass, that I could not see twenty yards. 

355 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

The letchwi, however, were easy enough to get, 
for as soon as they were frightened they would 
string out in a long line, crossing in front of the 
horse at almost right angles, so we would gallop 
at the leader, jump off and shoot. This habit 
comes from the Mashukulumbi driving them at 
certain times into a circle, and as this has been 
going on for years, the buck break out to one side 
as soon as anyone gets near them. The zebra 
would have been easy enough to kill, and I wanted 
a couple of skins, but foolishly kept putting shoot- 
ing off until we were almost finished the trip, and 
then of course did not see any more. 

On the flats we could shoot only in the early 
morning and late afternoon, on account of the 
mirage, which surpassed anything I have ever seen. 
At noon not only was there game on earth, but 
great herds of it floating into the air, seemingly 
close at hand. One day I jumped off my pony to 
shoot a letchwi, when a troop of zebra galloping 
by, the pony joined them, leaving me afoot. Fin- 
aughty, who luckily was near at hand, gave chase, 
and in a couple of hours I saw him come gallop- 
ing back, leading the pony. He seemed so close 
that I thought he saw me, and it was not until he 
seemed to be passing us at a couple of hundred 
yards that my boy, who had come up, called to 

356 



yf Shooting Trip in Nortlnvestern Rhodesia 

him, while I fired a couple of shots. For three 
hours he galloped around us, sometimes on the 
ground, more often in the air, but all the time so 
plain that I could see each pony rise and fall in 
his stride, and knew that Finaughty had changed 
on to my pony. At last he found us, and getting on 
our ponies, we gave them their heads for camp, an 
experiment I had often tried before. So well did 
they know where the wagon was, although we had 
only been there two days, that the big tree ap- 
peared exactly between my pony's ears, and this 
after he had been galloped back and forth all 
morning. 

After I had shot four good letchwi heads, we 
traveled for a couple of days up the Kafue River, 
making camp under some big fig trees on a high 
bank, while the plain behind us was covered with 
the largest ant hills I have ever seen, many of 
them over twelve feet high. On the way, we 
stopped over a day near a large native village, 
where I shot several duikers, a small buck weigh- 
ing about thirty pounds ; and I may say here that I 
took a very unfair advantage of them. The bush 
around the village swarmed with duikers, which 
were hunted a good deal by natives armed with 
spears, and I suppose the little buck preferred 
this to being hunted by the cat tribe further away. 

357 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Anyhow they had worked out the range of a spear 
so exactly that when started from a clump of bushes 
or a patch of long grass, they would run for a 
hundred yards, and then walk, quietly away, giving 
plenty of time to look at their horns through a 
glass, as well as for a shot. Near the camp were 
several small herds of puku, a kob or waterbuck, 
about the size of a whitetail deer. Living on the 
open plain without any cover, over which the wind 
blew with great force, raising blinding clouds of 
dust and ashes from the burnt grass, they were 
wild and hard to approach. Each buck had a herd 
of about thirty does with him, thus adding greatly 
to the difficulty of getting a shot, as he was gen- 
erally in their midst, and I must confess to a couple 
of amazing flukes when I got a couple of good 
heads with a shot each through the heart at over 
three hundred yards in a gale of wind. I mention 
this to show that sometimes the thousand-to-one 
chance comes off. 

One evening a native came to camp with the 
report that he could show us buffalo' within a long 
day's march, and in a country where we could use 
horses. This sounded too good to be true, and I 
was careful to impress on him that we would ad- 
here strictly to the agreement which we always 
made in such cases, namely, a handsome present if 

358 



A Shooting Trip in Northwestern Rhodesia 

we were shown the game or recent spoor, and a 
present of twenty-five lashes with the ox whip in 
case it was all a fake. Natives would often come 
to camp offering to show us certain kinds of game, 
either in order that they might get a present in 
advance, or that we might be persuaded to shoot 
them some common variety of buck when we could 
not get what we were after. This particular native 
did not bolt in the night when we explained our 
terms, as usually happened, so next morning we 
took some boys to carry our beds and food, and 
the rising sun saw us under way. Until noon we 
traveled under a blazing sun over a parched plain, 
the wind from which was like blasts from a fur- 
nace — then a rest, and on again at one in the ter- 
rific heat, until, just as the sun was setting, we came 
to a little knoll, the only landmark in sight, where 
our guide said he had found water a week before. 
There was no sign of it now. 

Nine o'clock found us still traveling, with no 
sign of water, but soon afterward we came to a de- 
pression, where we dug a little well, getting a cup 
of liquid mud each, with every prospect of an 
uncomfortable night, as we were now suffering as 
much with the cold as we had previously done with 
the heat, our boys having fallen far behind with 
the food and blankets. With difficulty we man- 

359 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

aged to collect a little dry grass to make a momen- 
tary blaze, which, together with a few shots, 
brought the men up by midnight, very tired and 
thirsty. 

The next morning we saw far off the tops of a 
small clump of trees on a rise of ground, where our 
guide assured us he had seen buffalo a week be- 
fore, and these we reached about noon, the tired 
porters not getting in until late. Luckily, there 
was water, but absolutely no sign of buffalo, and 
the guide became very impertinent; but as the tired 
porters staggered in one by one, he changed his 
manner on my threatening to turn him over to 
their tender mercies. At last he confessed that he 
had not seen buffalo for three years. I gave him 
his choice of being turned over to our men, taking 
a whipping or carrying a load back tO' camp, which 
latter he chose, and I need not say that the load 
the men made up for him was far from light, and 
that a very chastened native arrived at the wagon 
late the next evening, and as soon as he had 
deposited his burden, started for his kraal. 

Upon our return, we found a native awaiting 
us, who offered to show us buffalo in another direc- 
tion, so after a day's rest we went with him. He 
told us that we would have to make a dry camp 
the first night, but would reach a pan or pool the 

360 



A Shooting Trip in Northwestern Rhodesia 

next morning. The mere fact of knowmg water 
is scarce makes one thirsty, and I could have done 
with more that evening, but did not worry, as we 
expected to reach water early the next day. I 
should say that the reason we did not go on to the 
water the first day was because we hoped to run 
into buffalo grazing near the pan in the morning. 

We left camp after the first sign of dawn, and 
soon found fresh spoor of the herd, which we 
followed until it entered a dense thicket of thorns 
many miles in extent. By this time we were quite 
ready for breakfast and water, so made for the 
pan, which we found almost dry and absolutely 
undrinkable for a white man, as its stench was 
unbearable. 

Our men told us that we could buy water from 
a well near a kraal, a few miles distant, and we 
sent at once for some, in the meantime sitting very 
thirsty under a thin tree, while I thought of the 
many times I had been in a bath tub without drink- 
ing the water, and Finaughty in a hoarse voice made 
remarks on the man who wrote the hymn about 
"Africa's Sunny Fountains." At last the water 
arrived, muddy, smelly, but drinkable with tea, 
and at this camp we stayed two^ weeks, the first 
part of which we were out before dawn trying to 
catch the buffalo' which drank at the pan every 

361 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

night before they got into the bush, but without 
success. Several times we followed them in — an 
unpleasant experience, as most of the time we had 
to crawl on all fours, and in each case a buffalo 
we had passed close by without seeing got our wind 
and alarmed the herd. At last I had my men build 
a platform in the branches of a tree on the edge 
of the water, and here I determined to spend the 
night. The platform was made of poles across 
two branches about twenty feet from the ground, 
and here with blankets, water bottle, rifle and field 
glasses, I took my position about 4 o'clock in the 
afternoon, the men returning tO' camp a mile away. 
No sooner had the men left than the game 
began coming in to drink, first a little herd of roan 
appeared from among the open bush, not seeming 
to walk out like domestic animals, but occupying 
a place that a moment before was vacant, like a 
magic lantern picture on a screen. For over an 
hour by my watch they stood, getting up courage 
to face the chance of lions in the reeds or the many 
game pits built in the surrounding banks — pits 
eight feet long by three feet wide and six feet 
deep, tapering in a V to the bottom. At last they 
walked down and drank of the liquid mud, raising 
their heads at frequent intervals while doing so, 
then hurriedly walked away. Zebra, hartebeest 

362 



A Shooting Trip in Northwestern Rhodesia 

and reedbuck also came, while I had hopes of a 
leopard or lion before dark, but was disappointed. 
All the time, doves in untold thousands streamed 
to the water from every direction, settling so 
thickly about the water that many were hovering 
in the air awaiting their turn to drink. At last 
night came, the sun having disappeared from view 
long before behind a bank of smoke from burning 
grass and dust that the wind had raised on the 
open plains. Unfortunately there was no moon, 
but under the cloudless sky the stars shone 
brightly, and one's eyes soon became accustomed 
to the night, while with the increasing darkness 
the little pan seemed to grow in size until it looked 
like a lake. During the first part of the night, 
game came in to drink, but were invisible, as their 
color matched too well with their surroundings; 
however, I could hear them in the water, and my 
ear could soon tell by the noises their feet made 
in the mud how big an animal was in the pool. 
About midnight I heard far off the grunting sounds 
continually made by buffalo, and as they approach 
nearer, the clinking of their hoofs as they walked, 
until at last the herd filed in, immediately walking 
Into the center of the shallow water to drink the 
churned up liquid mud. They were so closely packed 
together that I could not single any one out, until 

363 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

at last a large buffalo walked toward my tree, when 
I gave it both barrels of my 450. Instantly the 
herd stampeded, and I thought that I had missed, 
but I soon heard from near by the low moaning 
bellow which a buffalo usually makes as it is dying. 
The noise of my shots had awakened the camp, 
and the men, knowing well the meaning of the 
noise the beast made, came down with a lamp, 
which soon showed us a good bull lying dead on 
the bank. The next night I killed another in the 
same way, and having had enough of this rather 
unsportsmanlike method of hunting, we moved a 
march further on to where there were said to be 
kudu. On the way I picked up a very fine pair of 
kudu horns, which had been killed by a lion, and in 
the following week saw some very fine kudu bulls, 
but did not succeed in getting any owing to a run 
of very bad shooting, combined with a large and 
very painful liver, the result of fever. So severe 
was the pain that I could not bend nor take long 
breath, while all the time my side ached as though 
my ribs were broken. Much as I hated to leave 
the kudu country without getting one of the several 
good heads, both Finaughty and I were feeling so 
badly that we thought it unwise to remain any 
longer, so moved back to where the wagon was 
standing on the Kafue River, Here we found that 

364 



A Shooting Trip in Northwestern Rhodesia 

a lion had tried to take one of the lead oxen as he 
lay sleeping fastened to the trek chain, and he was 
badly clawed about the head and neck. It must 
have been either a very old and feeble lion or a 
young one, unskilled in this method of slaughter; 
but as the ground was baked very hard, there were 
no tracks tO' tell what size of a beast he was. While 
in the kudu country I shot a couple of Crawshay 
waterbuck, both having good heads. 

Of course, I was very anxious to get a situtunga 
— an antelope seldom shot by white men. Inhab- 
iting as it does the dense reedy swamps of the 
rivers, it is chiefly killed by the natives during the 
floods, when it is speared swimming from island 
to island. When word was brought that a situ- 
tunga had been seen in a large tract of reeds some 
distance inland, we at once rode over, only to 
find that we were just too late, the buck having 
been driven out by burning the now dry reeds and 
pulled down by dogs. In fact, much to our dis- 
appointment, we met the natives bringing in the 
head, which I bought for a few yards of cloth. As 
my time was up, we trekked back to Kalomo, hav- 
ing shot good specimens of eland, buffalo, roan, 
sable, wildebeest, waterbuck, both common and 
Crawshay's, LIchtenstein's hartebeest, bushbuck, 
letchwi, puku, oribi and duiker. 

36s 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

The measurements of the best specimens of 
the various heads, made by Rowland Ward in 
London, some months after when the heads had 
shrunk, were as follows : 

Length on Circum- 

outside curve, ference. Tip to tip. 

Hartebeest 20^ 13 13^ 

Cape Duiker 4^.4 2 2^ 

Cape Oribi ^^4, iK 2^ 

Crawshay's Waterbuck 26>< 8^ 155^ 

Letchwi 32^^ 7Va ^9H 

Puku i6y2 yyi s% 

Reedbuck 13^ 6>4 loj^ 

Sable 46y2 10^ 11^ 

Roan Antelope 28^4 8>4 13H 

Roan Antelope (Cow) 28^ 7^ 15^^ 

Bushbuck 14^ 514 6^ 

Eland 3054 f3 22^ 

Eland (Cow) 29 8^4 hH 

Widest Breadth 

outside. of palm. Tip to tip. 

Blue Wildebeest 23^ 4 14^ 

Buffalo (Bull) 35 8^ 26}^ 

Buffalo (Cow) 35 4^ 21 

My battery on this trip consisted of a double- 
barrel ejector 303, a 450 double-barrel ejector, 
and a rook rifle. All the game except the buffalo 
were killed with the 303, on which was a detach- 
able telescope sight. This I found very useful in 
dim lights. 

Geo. L. Harrison, Jr. 
366 



CONDITION OF WILD LIFE IN ALASKA 

The opening of the twentieth century found the 
game in the old territories of the United States 
well on the road toward the conditions that pre- 
cede extinction. The bison had been practically 
gone for two decades. The mountain sheep had 
been exterminated throughout a very large part of 
its original range, and the number remaining in 
remote mountains was sadly reduced. The wapiti, 
while still living in herds numbering many thou- 
sand, was rapidly withdrawing tO' the vicinity of 
its last refuge, the Yellowstone Park. The prong- 
horn of the plains was disappearing with increas- 
ing rapidity, partly because of the increasing use 
of the barb-wire fences on its former ranges. 

This rapid diminution of the game animals of 
the United States was the inevitable consequence 
of the settlement and occupation of the best graz- 
ing lands. While there remain mountains where 
the game is relatively undisturbed, so' far as the 
killing of individuals is concerned, and while these 
ranges in summer appear well adapted to sustain a 

367 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

large and varied fauna, their actual capacity to 
sustain life is limited to such animals as can there 
find sustenance during the heavy snows of winter. 

Before the arrival of white men, the animals, 
which lived in the mountains during the summer, 
during the cold season sought refuge in the shel- 
tered valleys and foothills. These favored locali- 
ties, however, were at once occupied by settlers, 
and the game was deprived of its winter feeding 
grounds. This has done more in recent years to 
exterminate the large animals of the West than 
the actual shooting of individuals. 

During the closing years of the nineteenth 
century the American people had obtained no little 
experience in game protection, and had embodied 
it in Federal statutes and the game laws of the 
various States. Of all the regulations established 
for the preservation of wild life, the most prac- 
tical and effective have been found to be, first, the 
prohibition of hide and head hunting; second, the 
prohibition of market hunting; third, and most 
important of all, the establishment of sanctuaries 
where game can roam and breed absolutely un- 
disturbed. The most conspicuous example of such 
refuges is the Yellowstone Park, the success of 
which is admitted on all sides. 

At the end of the century, the gold discovered 
368 



The Condition of Wild Life in Alaska 

in the extreme northwest of Canada and in Alaska 
brought these territories suddenly before the public 
eye. Here was a district of enormous extent, lying 
at the extreme limit of the continent, and populated 
by a large and varied fauna, which was practically 
undisturbed. During the last ten years, thousands 
of prospectors and miners have gone into Alaska, 
and in many places worked havoc with the game. 
On the whole, however, the destruction of the 
game has not yet gone far enough to permanently 
Injure the fauna of the region, provided the matter 
of protection is taken In hand scientifically and in 
the immediate future. 

In Alaska we have a gigantic preserve. In It 
there are not only several species rich in the num- 
bers of their individual members, but also certain 
species which in point of size appear to be the very 
culmination of their respective genera, as for ex- 
ample, the giant moose. The brown bear group of 
southern Alaska certainly contains the largest 
known bears, not even excepting the great fish bear 
of Kamchatka, or the extinct cave bear of Europe. 
The largest known wolves are found in northern 
Alaska, and a wolverine of exceptional size has 
recently been described. When this great game 
region was; first opened up, immediate legislation 
was needed to protect the animals from the delib- 

369 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

erate onslaught of hide hunters in southeastern 
Alaska ; of head hunters, who attacked the moose, 
sheep and caribou of the Kenai Peninsula, and of 
the market hunters generally throughout the coast 
regions, A game law, which certainly proved 
effective in making it difficult for sportsmen to 
hunt in Alaska, was passed. 

The general principles of game protection, ap- 
plicable to the situation in Alaska, are simple. It 
should be clearly understood that the game of 
Alaska, or of any other region, does not belong 
exclusively to the human inhabitants of that par- 
ticular region, and that neither the white settlers 
nor the native inhabitants have any inherent right 
to the game, other than that conferred by law. 
The interest of the entire people of the United 
States, and to some extent that of the civilized 
world, is centered in the continued existence of the 
forms of animal life which have come down to us 
from an Immense antiquity through the slow 
process of evolution. It Is no longer generally 
conceded that the local inhabitants of any given 
district have a divine commission to- pollute streams 
with sawdust, to destroy forests by ax or fire, or to 
slaughter every living thing within reach of rifle, 
trap or poisoned bait. This must be thoroughly 
understood In advance. The game and the forests 

370 



The Condition of Wild Life in Alaska 

belong to the nation, and not to the individual, 
and the use of them by the individual citizen is 
limited to such privileges as may be accorded him 
by law. The mere fact that he has the power to 
destroy without interference by the law, does not 
in itself confer a right. The destruction of game 
is far more often effected by local residents than 
it is by visiting sportsmen, but the chief evildoer, 
and the public enemy of all classes, is the profes- 
sional hunter, either Indian or white, who kills for 
the market. Worse still, perhaps, is the profes- 
sional dealer in heads and antlers, who employs 
such hunters to provide game heads for the decora- 
tion of the banquet halls of the growing class of 
would-be sportsmen, who^ enjoy the suggestion of 
hunting prowess conferred by a selected collection 
of purchased heads, mixed In with those of their 
own killing. 

However efficient the game law may be in limit- 
ing the killing to a given number of Individuals, 
and to certain seasons of the year, or, better still, to 
the adult males of certain species, the only per- 
manently effective way to continue in abundance 
and in individual vigor any species of game Is, to 
establish proper sanctuaries, as thoroughly con- 
trolled as the Yellowstone Park, and these must 
contain both summer and winter ranges. In such 

371 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

areas no hunting or trapping — perhaps even no 
dogs — should be allowed; and in them the game 
will then retain its native habits and breed freely, 
while the overflow will populate the adjoining dis- 
tricts. This principle has been applied with 
brilliant success in East Africa, where a protected 
strip of land on either side of the Uganda Railway 
is now absolutely swarming with game. 

Such preserves should be set aside in Alaska, 
while land is yet of little value. Districts should be 
selected where there is little or no mineral wealth ; 
and there are abundant areas of that description in 
Alaska. Certain islands should also be utilized, 
particularly In southeastern Alaska.* Beyond 
doubt such refuges will be ultimately established, 
but it Is to be hoped that It can be done before the 
game has been decimated and the forests cut down 
or burned. 

Another element in game protection is the rela- 
tion of the Indian to the wild game. This problem 

*The question of Alaska game refuges has received the 
attention of the Game Preservation Committee, and vari- 
ous plans for establishing them have been given careful 
thought. No announcements on the subject have as yet 
been made by the Committee. One of the last acts of 
President Taft's administration was the setting aside by 
proclamation the Aleutian chain of islands for a game 
and fish preserve. Reindeer have been placed on the 
island of Afognak, which has long been a refuge. 

27^ 



The Condition of Wild Life in Alaska 

Is not as serious in Alaska as it is in parts of British 
Columbia and the Canadian Northwest, and is 
settling itself by the rapid decline of the Indian 
population. Indians, after they have been in 
contact with white men, certainly are extremely 
destructive to animal life. An Indian with a gun 
will shoot at anything he sees until his ammunition 
is gone. These people seem to be devoid of any 
idea of economy in slaughtering, even though they 
know that they are certain to suffer from starvation 
as a result of their indiscriminate waste of game. 
Any legislation, therefore, that gives Indians priv- 
ileges superior to the whites is based, not on scien- 
tific, but on sentimental considerations. 

To exempt the Indians from the limitation of 
game laws in a district partly inhabited by white 
men, simply puts the white hunter at a disadvan- 
tage, and always results in a contempt for the law 
on the part of the latter. If an Indian is allowed 
to hunt freely during the closed season, he is 
usually employed by whites for market hunting. 
The game he kills finds its way tO' the white man's 
market rather than to the tipis of the tribe, or Is 
used as food by the Indian's dogs, with the ulti- 
mate result that the food supply of the entire tribe 
is killed off for the benefit of a few hunters. 

In the abundance of the salmon the Indians of 

373 



^Hunting at High Altitudes 

Alaska have a food supply which Is available 
throughout the most of the district, and they are 
consequently not entitled to any special privileges. 
Alaska Is, and for a long time should remain, the 
ward of the Federal Government — however dis- 
tasteful this may be to some of its inhabitants. It 
is peculiarly the duty of the Federal Government 
to preserve and control the wild game of this 
national domain, because the people of the United 
States as a whole are the ones most interested in 
its preservation. It is to Congress, rather than to 
the residents of Alaska, that we must look for the 
enactment and enforcement of suitable laws, to 
seize the last great opportunity to preserve our 
native fauna on a large scale. In the future, no 
doubt, we shall restore game and perhaps forests 
to many districts now stripped of both, but in 
Alaska we have our last chance to preserve and 
protect rather than to restore. 

The claim made by many Western communities, 
that local State laws are sufficient for game preser- 
vation, is constantly disproved by the inability of 
several States to control the small game supply left 
within their own borders. Colorado^ is an example 
of the diminution of game under State control. In 
Canada, British Columbia prides itself on the 
efficiency of its game laws, but the game is vanish- 

374 



The Condition of Wild Life in Alaska 

ing there rapidly, although in the eastern portion 
of that province It Is the Stoney Indians, rather 
than white hunters, who are the chief destroyers. 

From the point of view of game conditions, 
Alaska Is divided Into two entirely distinct regions. 
First, the Coast Region, from Portland Canal 
along the base of the mountains northward, and 
then westward, to and including the Aleutian 
Islands. 

The second region comprises the interior beyond 
the mountains, and is co-extenslve with the region 
drained by the Yukon and Its various branches. 

In these two regions conditions differ widely, 
and practically all the sportsmen who go tO' Alaska 
hunt in the coast region. Those who cross into 
the Interior are likely to confine their shooting to 
the headwaters of the Yukon in Canadian territory. 

The game on the coast between Portland Canal 
and Mt. St. Ellas consists principally of bear and 
the small Sitka deer. On the mainland, close 
enough to salt water to be easily reached, white 
goats are abundant. 

To reach moose, caribou or sheep from the 
southeastern coast, requires a journey over the 
mountains Into British Columbia, which is seldom 
attempted, except from Fort Wrangell at the 
mouth of the Stikeen River. 

375 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

West of the St. Elias Alps and around Cook 
Inlet, the principal game animals are the giant 
moose and white sheep of the Kenai Peninsula, the 
caribou and bear of the Alaska Peninsula, and the 
bear of some of the large islands, notably Kodiak. 
It is in this district that the game laws require close 
attention and rigid enforcement. 

In the vast interior the strict enforcement of 
game laws is not so important, because the entire 
region drained by the Yukon is covered with 
heavy forests, and the population is largely con- 
fined to waterways. 

Black bear, lynx and moose are everywhere 
abundant, but seldom seen along the Yukon River. 
Sheep are accessible from points on the Upper 
Yukon, notably at Eagle, and caribou occasionally 
cross the river in herds at that point. 

The game laws for this district should aim 
principally at the prevention of slaughter on a 
large scale for market purposes, and of hide and 
head hunting. There are very few sportsmen, and 
the miners and prospectors in the interior are diffi- 
cult to control. 

JVolves. — Wolves are abundant at points on the 
coast and throughout the interior. In the north, 
around the region drained by the Porcupine River, 
they assume very large dimensions, some skins 

37^ 



The Condition of JVild Life in Alaska 

measuring nearly six feet from nose to tip of tail. 
A large percentage of these wolves are black. 
Coyotes have pushed north from the American 
boundary as far as White Horse, at the headwaters 
of the Yukon River. 

Foxes. — Red, cross, silver and black foxes occur 
in the interior. The two latter command enor- 
mous prices, in some cases as high as $i,ooo for 
one skin. These animals are being killed off by 
the use of poison in the hands of white men, and 
many more are destroyed than are recovered. The 
natives are afraid to use poison, owing to several 
tragedies which have occurred from its careless 
handling. 

Along the Arctic and Bering Sea coast white 
foxes abound, and blue fox:es are found from the 
mouth of the Yukon River southward, their center 
of abundance being Nelson Island, in Bering Sea, 
near the mouth of the Kuskokwim River. 

Bear. — Bear are extremely abundant in Alaska, 
especially on the Pacific Coast. Their great num- 
bers are probably due to the fact that they have 
an abundant food supply in the great schools of 
salmon that ascend the rivers. Before the arrival 
of the salmon, these bear, like the grizzlies of our 
own Rockies, feed on spermophiles and grass. 
During the salmon season they are easily found 

377 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

and killed by hunters, and as this occurs during 
the summer season, their fur is of very little value. 
The period of the salmon run, in fact the entire 
summer, should be made a closed season for bear 
throughout this district. Owing tO' the recent de- 
cline in the price of bear skins, these splendid ani- 
mals have been hunted rather less than formerly. 

The black bear occurs commonly in Vancouver 
and Queen Charlotte Islands, but as far as I know 
not in any of the large islands north. They are, 
however, found along the mainland of the south- 
eastern coast, and probably everywhere through, 
the interior in the timbered region. The blue or 
glacier bear is found rarely around the glaciers of 
the Mt. St. Elias region. 

Grizzlies occur in considerable numbers along 
the mainland of the coast as far north as Skagway, 
and are found in relatively small numbers through- 
out the interior. There are very few grizzly bears 
on the Seward Peninsula, and I was unable to get 
any skulls or to obtain any definite data concerning 
them. This bear may prove an interesting type if 
a sufficient series of specimens could be obtained. 

There are huge bears found on the large islands 
around Juneau and Sitka, which have been referred 
to two separate species, and their numbers are in- 
dicated by the fact that about seventy-five animals, 

378 



The Condition of JVild Life in Alaska 

the majority being of these species, are killed! 
annually around Juneau. 

The brown bear group extends from this point 
westward along the south coast of Alaska, out inta 
the Alaska Peninsula. Several species have been 
described, but they can all be grouped together 
under the common designation of Alaska brown 
bear. They extend far up the Copper River, but 
I could not obtain any definite record of the occur- 
rence of members of this group north of the moun- 
tain region and in the area drained by the Yukon. 

Polar bear occur quite abundantly north of 
Bering Straits. Occasionally they are found on 
the Seward Peninsula, and occur as far south as 
St. Matthew's Island, in the middle of Bering Sea. 

Caribou. — Caribou of several species are more 
or less abundant throughout Alaska, and occur in, 
herds around the Upper Yukon, with localities of 
especial abundance, such as the head of Forty Mile 
River. An examination of the antlers found at 
various points, from the Upper Yukon River tO' 
the sea, would indicate an almost complete transi- 
tion of antler type from the Woodland (Osbom) 
caribou, to the Barren Ground (Grant) caribou. 
A further study of the caribou of this region w^ill 
ultimately lead to a merging of the various species. 
The work of Charles Sheldon in the study of sheep 

379 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

in the Mt. McKinley district, has broken down the 
specific distinctions of the sheep in Alaska in the 
same way. 

That caribou were formerly very abundant 
on the Seward Peninsula is proved by the abund- 
ance of bleached skulls and cast antlers, apparently 
about twenty or twenty-five years old. The cause 
of their disappearance is as yet unknown. The 
possession of firearms by the natives, first obtained 
from whalers, is by some considered as the cause, 
and by others epidemics. The natives themselves 
claim that about a generation ago the winter cold 
continued throughout an entire year, and all the 
caribou perished in consequence. All these ex- 
planations leave much to be desired, as there is an 
abundance of caribou in the wooded district at the 
eastern end of the Peninsula, and the explanation 
of the fact that in the course of all these years the 
caribou have not wandered back to their old feed- 
ing grounds remains to be given. A few scattered 
individuals are all that have been seen since the 
founding of Nome. 

Domestic reindeer have been introduced into 
Alaska successfully, and form a valuable resource 
for the natives. I, however, saw nothing of them. 
Their meat forms a part of the menu in the vari- 
out restaurants at Nome. 

380 



The Condition of Wild Life in Alaska 

Moose. — Moose occur everywhere throughout 
Alaska within the timbered region, but seldom 
leave the shelter of the woods. They extend close 
to the Arctic Ocean in the north, and occasionally 
wander far out on the Alaska Peninsula. The 
giant moose occurs on the Kenal Peninsula, but it 
is probable that this animal is only an outlying 
member of the type species, which in that district, 
for some unknown reason, produces antlers of 
extraordinary size and complexity. A few in- 
stances of moose with antlers of great size are 
known in the Interior, but it is a matter of doubt 
whether or not in bodily size the Kenai Peninsula 
moose excels his kin in the interior, or in the 
Yukon Territory. 

Mountain Sheep. — Sheep occur everywhere in 
the mountain regions throughout Alaska ; being 
especially abundant in the country around the 
Upper Yukon and around Mt. McKinley, extend- 
ing thence as far south and west as the Kenai 
Peninsula. They also occur on the Upper Porcu- 
pine River, but the great Yukon Valley in Its lower 
reaches Is without sheep. 

Mountain Goat. — Goats occur throughout the 
mainland from the United States boundary north, 
but are never found, as far as I know, on any of 
the islands lying close along the coast in southeast- 

381 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

ern Alaska. In size and abundance the mountain 
goat appears to culminate in the region around the 
White Horse Pass, where they are very numerous 
They can still be seen within a half day's march of 
Skagway. They occur in abundance around the 
St. Elias Alps, and extend as fp.r west as the head 
of Cook Inlet. I only heard of one doubtful case 
of Kennedy's goat, the horns of which have been 
described as lyrate. 

fValrus and Whales. — Walrus are found every 
winter and spring in the Bering Sea, and many 
are killed at that season by the natives for the 
ivory, which sells at a dollar a pound. The walrus 
formerly extended down to the Alaska Peninsula 
and Aleutian Islands, but the rookeries there have 
been destroyed. This great mammal should re- 
ceive absolute protection in the entire Bering Sea 
region, except on the Pribilof Islands, where only 
a few are annually killed by the natives. 

Whales and porpoises occur in great abundance 
along the inside passage between Puget Sound and 
Lynn Canal and are interesting and harmless. 
There are now two plants on Vancouver Island 
very profitably engaged in killing whale of all sizes 
and converting them into fertilizer. A new plant 
has just been established near Juneau, where 
whales are especially abundant. It would be an 

382 



The Condition of Wild Life in Alaska 

easy matter to protect these animals, especially with 
the co-operation of the Canadian authorities, 
throughout the inland passages and oceanward as 
far as the three mile limit. Protective legislation 
of this sort should be urged. 

Fossils. — In any review of the present game 
conditions of the vast territory comprised within 
the districts of Alaska and the Canadian Territory 
of the Yukon, a few remarks on the former occur- 
rence of related forms are not without interest. 

Bones of large extinct mammals, more or less 
fossilized, occur in abundance throughout the en- 
tire valley drained by the Yukon River from Daw- 
son down, and the valleys of the Colville and 
Porcupine Rivers, and in still greater abundance 
on the Seward Peninsula, that projection of Alaska 
which reaches to within sixty miles of Siberia. 
Throughout this enormous area remains of the 
mammoth and bison occur in such numbers as to 
Indicate former herds of great size. We find also 
a smaller number of remains of horses, sheep, two 
species of musk-ox and a camel, together with a 
deer closely related to our wapiti. Teeth of 
mastodon, although very rare as compared with 
those of the mammoth, indicate the former exist- 
ence of that animal. It is perfectly evident that 
in times comparatively recent, from a geological 

383 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

point of view, perhaps from 10,000 tO' 25,000 
years ago, Alaska had a fauna of large mammals 
not altogether dissimilar to existing animals of 
North America and northern Asia.* The masto- 
don and mammoth, of course, no' longer exist on 
this continent, but the latter is a true elephant, well 
fitted to meet boreal conditions, and the horses in 
Alaska were probably not unlike the wild 
Prjevalsky horses of Asia to-day. 

The ancient Alaska deer were probably related 
to the wapiti, which swarmed over our American 
plains within the memory of living man, and the 
fossil remains of caribou and moose do not indicate 
any great departure from the living forms of those 
animals. 

Sheep still occur abundantly in Alaska, and the 
musk-ox, while no longer found in Alaska, inhabits 
the no less inhospitable regions of the Barren 
Grounds of North America, and the land masses 
lying still further north. The extermination of 
this animal in Alaska is very recent. 

Bison skulls are quite common, and indicate an 
animal much larger, but probably ancestral to our 

*A mammoth with some skin and hair intact was found 
by my companion at Eschscholtz Bay in the summer of 1907, 
and the specimens are now in the American Museum of 
Natural History, New York. 

384 



The Condition of Wild Life in Alaska 

living buffalo. The history of the American bison, 
which has a very large range of migration, sug- 
gests that it is quite possible that these animals did 
not habitually spend the winter in Alaska, but on 
the approach of the cold season migrated south- 
ward tO' warmer climates, or crossed into Siberia 
on the former land connection over what are now 
Bering Straits. If this hypothesis be correct, the 
climate of Alaska during the Pleistocene and re- 
cent periods, may not have radically differed from 
its climate of to-day. 

The extension of placer mining in Alaska, when 
conducted in a more systematic manner than at 
present, will undoubtedly bring to light other 
forms of large mammals, most probably types re- 
lated to those already mentioned, together with 
the remains of carnivorous types. 

The above article was written in 1907, and be- 
fore its publication in the current Boone and 
Crockett Club Book these notes should be added: 

The range of the brown bear of Alaska, which 
has long been a disputed question, is now known 
to extend as far north at least as the Kobuk River, 
within 300 miles of Point Barrow, and it is prob- 
able that further investigation will still further 
extend this range, 

385 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

The remarks about the walrus and whales have 
been unfortunately confirmed by the event. Nor- 
wegian whalers are now operating against these 
huge and unwieldy animals in the waters of Bering 
Sea, and unless immediate steps are taken to pro- 
tect them by treaty, it is probable that they will 
soon join the Rhytina of the same region in the list 
of exterminated animals. 

Whaling is now carried on in waters of the In- 
land Passage with great activity. Protection 
through international action here also is greatly 
needed to save these mammals. It is a pity that 
the work, energy and time expended over the mis- 
erable fur seal controversy, now raging, could not 
have been applied also to the preservation of these 
forms of marine life, which are far more in danger 
than the fur seals, since the latter, having a com- 
mercial value, were bound to attract attention 
sooner or later. 

Alaska has now a Territorial Legislature, which 
will undoubtedly claim the right to regulate its 
own game laws, but if control of the making and 
enforcement of the regulations be turned over to 
the residents, without Federal control, it will be 
the death knell of many species of the game. The 
men who live in Alaska constitute a floating popu- 
lation — for the most part of miners who have no 

386 



The Condition of Wild Life in Alaska 

permanent interest in the country in the sense that 
farmers are attached to the soil. The stable ele- 
ments of the population are chiefly the keepers of 
local saloons or road houses. Miners are accus- 
tomed to live off the country, with little care for its 
future. It would be extreme folly to entrust to 
such a population the formulation and enforcement 
of complicated game laws, which require a thor- 
ough knowledge of the habits of the animals. 

The Alaskans have certainly no right tO' com- 
plain of the present laws, which permit any game 
animal or game bird to be killed by natives at any 
time for food or clothing, and by miners or ex- 
plorers at any time when in need of food. Pros- 
pectors, wandering about the country, should of 
course be allowed to kill what they require for their 
daily needs, but it is not easy tO' see why miners, or 
men working in an established mining camp, should 
be allowed to kill wild game during the close sea- 
son, while those engaged in building railroads, or 
operating them, or keeping saloons, are forbidden 
the privilege. 

The jealous consideration of our legislators for 
the poor Indian and for the honest miner has gone 
too far, and the only effective remedy is game 
refuges. These are slowly increasing in number, 
and several additions have recently been made^ — 

387 



Hunting at High Allitttdcs 

notably on the Alaska Peninsula. The number of 
game and bird refuges in Alaska should be in- 
creased, and this is a matter well worthy of the 
attention of the Boone and Crockett Club. 

More wardens are required rather than more 
law. Indians should be kept well in hand while 
moose hunting, as they kill cows in preference to 
bulls, on the ground that the meat is more tender 
and consequently more salable. 

The present game laws operate perfectly against 
visiting sportsmen, and apparently this is the only 
feature that commends itself tO' the natives. It is 
the same old story, the natives kill the game reck- 
lessly and then blame the visiting sportsmen. The 
cowboy, miner and farmer killed the game in our 
West, and are killing it now in Alaska, ably 
assisted by the Indian with modern rifles. 

As an example of what we may expect from a 
local administration of the law, the annual reports 
of the former Governor of Alaska, Walter E. 
Clark, are edifying reading. This gentleman, who 
is deliciously ingenuous, demands that the enforce- 
ment of the law be turned over to the local Legis- 
lature, which he is sure is qualified for the job. 
When Senator Dillingham visited Alaska, some 
years ago, and consulted the prominent citizens of 
the various towns along the Yukon about the game 

388 



The Condition of Wild Life ^n Alaska 

of Alaska, he received the startling information 
that the bear of Alaska are so numerous that they 
could not be exterminated in a century, and so 
ferocious that only numerous and heavily armed 
parties dared to venture into the interior. On his 
return the Senator recommended the practical re- 
peal of all the Alaska game laws, an effort which 
was defeated by the Boone and Crockett Club. 

In the same manner the present Governor, hav- 
ing consulted the local bar-room bear hunter, is 
greatly concerned about the danger to humanity 
from brown bear. He uses in 191 1, the following 
language, after stating that the close season for 
brown bear should be repealed : 

"The least that can be said of the legal protec- 
tion of brown bear in Alaska is that it is an absurd- 
ity. If this protection is continued, the menace to 
human life will be still more serious, and agricul- 
ture and stock raising in some of the most favored 
regions in the Territory will be discouraged. 

"The Superintendent of the Government's ex- 
perimental stock farm on Kodiak Island, makes a 
strong appeal for the protection of settlers and 
live stock against the ravages of brown bear, de- 
claring that it has become a question whether we 
shall have a game preserve or a great agricultural 
and stock raising region on Kodiak Island." 

389 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

The basis of this story seems to be an attack on, 
sheep by a single brown bear, which was promptly 
killed by tke owner of the sheep. The brown 
bear on Kodiak Island is unfortunately so close to 
extinction that it is probable that in a short time 
a specimen will be of considerably more value than 
many sheep. The recent ash shower on this island 
from Katmai volcano has probably worked great 
injury to them, if it has not entirely destroyed 
them. 

In 19 1 2, in his report on the game, the learned 
Governor comes back to the subject in the follow- 
ing language: 

"Attention has been invited repeatedly tO' the 
condition which prevails on Kodiak Island as a 
result of the legal protection of the brown bear, 
Kodiak is a very large island, having a larger 
population than any other in Alaska of equal size. 
Some small farming and some rather extensive 
stock raising have been undertaken. Yet the cattle 
and sheep are frequently being killed by the vicious 
and increasingly plentiful brown bears, which are 
protected by a three months' closed season, and 
human beings are not infrequently attacked. Gen- 
erally speaking, the conditions of human habitation 
outside the larger towns in Alaska are far from 
easy, but when the hard conditions of life are en- 

390 



The Condition of Wild Life in Alaska 

hanced by the continued legal protection of wild 
animals, which at the best are a pest and at the 
worst a fatal menace to human life, popular respect 
for law and the administration of government is 
not increased. The long list of legal outrages 
which are perpetrated by the present game law 
would be promptly abolished if Congress, in its 
wisdom, had seen fit to entrust this simple and ele- 
mentary subject of legislation to the new Terri- 
torial General Assembly." 

As a further evidence of this gentleman's quali- 
fications as game expert and zoologist, I quote still 
further from his report of 19 12: 

"An intimation of the present incongruous con- 
dition is given when it is stated that brown bears 
are denominated as game, and are protected by the 
game regulations, while black bears are regarded 
as fur-bearing animals, subject to the regulations 
administered by the Bureau of Fisheries. Yet the 
workings of nature are such that of the same litter 
some bears are black and others are brown." 

Thus the cinnamon bear of the West has become 
transformed into the gigantic Alaska brown bear 
through the "mysterious workings of nature." 

It is to be hoped that the new Governor of 
Alaska will inform himself on the facts and acquire 
some elementary knowledge of the subject before 

391 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

he attempts to make recommendations on the game 
laws, but It is doubtful whether any new Governor 
will ever attain the pinnacle of grotesque absurdity 
occupied by the picturesque Walter E. Clark. 

Madison Grant. 
New York, May lo, 19 13. 



392 



DEER HUNTING IN CUBA 

The love of hunting is inherent in man, and 
deer hunting is a sport that numbers among its 
votaries men in all walks of life. It possesses a 
peculiar charm, that, once absorbed by the system, 
cannot be eradicated. 

Those who have not experienced it cannot at all 
appreciate the great pleasure to be derived from 
killing big game in a wild country, surrounded by 
undisturbed nature — the enjoyment increasing with 
the danger and the uncertainty of the hunt. The 
mere killing of an animal, however, does not con- 
vey pleasure or constitute sport, for man is not in- 
stinctively blood-thirsty; but the triumph of con- 
quering and capturing an animal, which pits its 
cunning and speed against your endurance and 
skill, gives to the sport a zest so keen that it sets 
one's nerves a-tingle. The thrill experienced in 
seeing one's first deer go down can hardly be de- 
scribed in words. 

All deer hunts are naturally more or less alike, 
and accounts of those devoid of special accident or 

393 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

incident are likely to be monotonous. I have 
already written an article on deer hunting for the 
Boone and Crockett series, yet I trust that this new 
setting will excuse another. 

Writers have sadly neglected the possibilities of 
Cuba from the sportsman's view-point. Few 
Americans have hunted there, and I have heard 
many sportsmen express surprise to learn that good 
deer hunting was to be had in this charming coun- 
try of romantic history. 

In Cuba, as in the United States, deer hold their 
own better than other large game, and although 
the warfare against them has been constant, they 
are still found throughout the island. 

In 1906, it was not unusual for a hunter to leave 
Havana in an automobile on a deer hunt in the 
morning, and the same night return to the city with 
a deer. In fact many deer have recently been 
killed within six or eight miles of Havana. Good 
hunting has always been had along the southern 
coast, and in the provinces of Pinar del Rio, San- 
tiago and Puerto Principe, and in the neighbor- 
hood of Guantanamo I found deer abundant. Com- 
paratively a few years ago large numbers of hides 
were annually exported from Bayamo. In the Isla 
de Pinos, Isla de Furiguana and many other small 
islands that at low tide are almost connected with 

394 




ADl LI MAI.K AM) II.MAI.K KLEPHANT SEAL, GrADAl.l l>l-. ISLAM). 
The male is in threatening attitude. His length was 16 feet. 




ADULT MALE ELEPHANT SEAL, GL ADALL i'L ISLAND. 

The scarred neck, calloused by much fighting, is well shown in this picture. 

(See page 406.) 



Deer Hunting in Cuba 

the mainland by a series of sand banks, deer were 
plentiful. 

Among the first to hunt deer in the island were 
the French, and their influence in hunting and 
shooting matters is still evident, especially in the 
eastern end of the island. 

Although the law establishes a close season from 
February i to September i, and the penalty for 
killing out of season is from five tO' fifty dollars 
and the confiscation of arms, the law is not en- 
forced and is little regarded. Were the hunters 
armed with modern guns and possessed of the 
energy and keenness of the average American 
sportsman, the process of extinction would be 
rapid. As it is, the ruinous, out of season, wanton 
slaughter is kept up with painful regularity. Some 
fair, true sportsmen kill only in season, and then 
in moderation; but I met and heard of others to 
whom the fair code of a true sportsman was 
unknown. Some, for instance, were guilty of kill- 
ing a doe carrying her fawns. 

The Cuban deer (venado) belong in the same 
group with our Virginia deer. Though somewhat 
smaller than the ordinary whitetail, they are larger 
than the Florida and Mexican deer, but have the 
small antlers and scanty pelage of the latter. 

It is generally believed that deer were originally 

395 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

brought from Jamaica and Hayti, where they were 
introduced by the French and English. My belief 
is they came originally from the United States and 
Mexico. In a tour of Jamaica, I found no one 
who had ever indulged in deer hunting in that 
island. 

The Cuban deer average 36 inches in height and 
weigh from 80 to 85 pounds. The largest I killed 
weighed 130 pounds, and was considered quite a 
large one. His antlers, now occupying a conspicu- 
ous place in my library, would indicate, from size 
of beam and tine, an animal even larger. These 
deer have unusually large and lustrous eyes, and 
with their exquisite symmetry and graceful move- 
ments, are a delight to the eye of the hunter ac- 
customed to the stately deer of the North — the 
big whitetail and blacktail. The flesh is rather 
dark, with a very fine grain and a flavor peculiarly 
its own, not unlike that of our blacktail. The 
brains, properly stewed, are esteemed a luxury. 

Their habits are similar to those of the whitetail, 
and like them, they are good swimmers. When 
hard pressed by hounds they invariably make for 
water at the second or third break from the timber. 

They run with a light, quick, buoyant move- 
ment, with flag up, and seldom bound like the mule 
deer, except when suddenly surprised — at which 

396 



Deer Hunting in Cuba 

time they have the appearance of being much 
larger than they really are. Not so' keen sighted 
as the antelope, they yet possess remarkable powers 
of vision, and are especially quick toi notice any 
moving object, which makes stalking almost an 
impossibility. 

So far as my observations extended, there is no 
well marked season of rut or of the birth of the 
young. Though most numerous in the early spring, 
it would seem that, as there is no severe cold 
weather, nature has not provided the usual pro- 
tection for the young, and as in the tropics there 
is practically no season with reference to tempera- 
ture and vegetation, there is none well defined for 
breeding. 

In hunting them I discovered no new distinctive 
phases of deer character. They feed at night, and 
in the early evening wade into the small lakes 
(lagunas) In search of succulent lilies and delicate 
aquatic plants. Their favorite food is the creep- 
ing plants known as lechosa and bejucos, of which 
they are very fond and eat greedily. Shortly after 
daybreak they retire to the thickets or jungles, and 
secure from intrusion by man, take their siesta In 
almost Impenetrable haunts. From these situations 
it is difficult to drive them, even with well trained 
hounds. 

397 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

In the wilder and more unsettled sections they 
can be found in the savanas until the heat of the 
day, hiding in the guinea and pajal grasses, where 
they are less harassed by flies and insects. They 
are loth to leave such a sheltered retreat, and a 
horseman, unaccompanied by dogs, may ride to 
within a few feet of them before they break cover. 

A greater variety of dogs is used in deer hunting 
in Cuba than in any half dozen other deer coun- 
tries of which I know. In point of numbers the 
cur, or native dog, predominates. Novelties to me 
were the slow tracking Spanish pointer, trained to 
point quite as if upon birds, and the Biscaya, a 
heavy, low-set Spanish hound, with remarkably 
large dew claws, and with about as much speed as 
an average ice wagon. English beagles, French 
hounds and griffons were much in evidence, espe- 
cially in the eastern part of the island. Of late 
years only, the American foxhound has begun to 
find favor in the eyes of the local hunters. For- 
merly he was considered too fast. In every sec- 
tion of the island, from Havana tO' Santiago, I 
found hounds of my own breeding, and was pleased 
to note that expert hunters considered them the 
best. 

Ordinarily, for deer, I prefer a slow, painstak- 
ing, trailing and driving hound; but in these 

398 



Deer Hunting in Cuba 

almost impenetrable jungles a fast trailing, hard- 
driving hound is far better, as the deer soon learn 
many of the tricks of the fox in throwing off the 
hounds, and avoid the small clearings, called 
sabanetones, where at their stands the cigarette- 
smoking hunters patiently await their appearance. 
Pottering along on a cold trail, the slow hound will 
sometimes be occupied an hour in forcing the 
quarry out of a ten-acre thicket, where he finds it 
difficult tO' drive them from the innumerable game 
paths through the jungles, where they leave only 
the foot scent, while a fast hound allows them 
little choice of route, forcing them through the 
thickets, where the scent, adhering tO' the bushes, 
vines and tall grasses, enables the fast hounds to 
own the line and trail them with heads breast high 
at full speed, and they soon break for clearings 
en route to the rivers or lagunas. It is well known 
that the harder a deer is run and the warmer he 
becomes the more body scent he gives off. The 
native hunters, however, seem to prefer the slow 
hound, and are contented to wait as lonely sentries 
on a stand while the slow hounds potter along on a 
cold trail. 

A hound three-fourths foxhound and one-fourth 
bloodhound — though subject to black tongue, a 
fatal disease in the tropics — makes an ideal dog 

399 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

for deer hunting in tropical countries. What the 
bloodhound cross loses in speed it gains in nose, 
and it has a certain natural sagacity which teaches 
it not to open on a cold trail — something much to 
be desired in jungle hunting. 

The shotgun is the favorite weapon used in this 
sport. Many Cubans and Spaniards prefer the 
i6-gauge for deer as for birds, though the rifle and 
the lo and 12 gauge shotgun are coming into 
vogue as American influence increases. 

The poorer classes use single-barrel muzzleload- 
ing shotguns, costing from three to five dollars, 
which they load with a handful of powder and a 
half pound of leaden slugs. 

The better classes use modern shotguns or large 
caliber repeating rifles, according tO' local condi- 
tions. I am not sure that they are not better 
adapted to the purpose than our small caliber rifles 
— ^with their great velocity and penetration — pos- 
sessing as they do greater striking energy and tre- 
mendous shocking power. The small bullet of 
high velocity, unless it passes through a bone, 
allows a deer to escape for the time being, yet with 
a mortal wound, from which it dies later in the 
jungle. The flatness of trajectory and great 
momentum of the small caliber high power rifles 
make them exceedingly dangerous to other hunters. 

400 



Deer Hunting in Cuba 

In shooting at a running deer every second is 
precious, and I have always preferred a metal front 
sight, kept bright, with a plain bar rear sight. The 
center of sight is quickly and unmistakably located. 

The hunting is usually on horseback. The 
party, generally consisting of from four to six, 
ride to a favorite jungle, which may be several 
hundred acres in extent, and separated from the 
sugar cane fields by small clearings. The hunters 
station themselves on different sides, sitting on their 
horses, so that they may move quickly up and down 
the clearings, which frequently are not wider than 
broad streets or roadways. If the hounds are good 
persistent hunters, they are cast into the thicket 
alone ; if they need urging and assistance, a hunter 
— picador — is sent in with them. 

Some of these thickets are almost impenetrable 
because of the tangled undergrowth, and I often 
had to give up attempts to penetrate them. Not 
so with the native picador. Each is armed with 
the ever-present and wonderful machete, and with 
the peculiar drawing wrist motion that no' foreigner 
ever acquires, he can cut his way through places 
seemingly impassable. The size of the limb or tree 
they can cut with a single stroke is almost beyond 
belief. The machete is indispensable. With it 
they cut and blaze trails, dress and skin game, 

401' 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

make huts, chop firewood, or slice venison and 
bacon. They use it as a weapon of offense and 
defense. I saw one woman, both of whose arms 
had been cut off close to the shoulder, each with 
a single stroke of this terrible weapon. 

Unless, as seldom happens, the chaparral is 
drawn blank, the jungle soon resounds with the 
cheering music of the deep baying hounds, and for 
a moment the chattering of the many birds that 
hitherto have kept up an incessant chorus, ceases, 
to be renewed with increased vigor when the driv- 
ing commences in earnest. A driven deer is fre- 
quently located by the birds protesting in no un- 
certain terms against his advance through the 
thickets. 

If, instead of a jump, the eager hounds find a 
cold trail, they work it out slowly, occasionally 
opening on it — the tongue of each individual 
hound — as familiar to the ear as the voice of a 
friend — floating out to the now thoroughly aroused 
hunters, each of whom seeks a point of vantage. 
Although one is supposed to stick to the stand 
selected, still when the deer is up and the hounds 
are driving hard through the bewildering maze of 
game paths, the tough little native ponies have 
plenty of work cut out for them through the efforts 
made by each rider to be at the place the deer will 

402 



Deer Hunting in Cuba 

leave the timber. Such moving about often turns 
back the deer, which prefers to take its chances 
with the hounds rather than with the hunters. 
However, after being turned back several times, a 
moment comes when the deer bounds into the open- 
ing. If it is a young one, and has not been chased 
before, it is likely to pause for a few seconds at 
the edge of the clearing, with ears thrown forward, 
tail erect, motionless as a statue, not a muscle 
quivering, while it listens to the distant music of 
the hounds. It is but an instant, however, before 
sinewy springs send it bounding away across the 
clearing like an animated ball, to disappear into the 
adjoining jungle. As it vanishes from sight, its 
twinkling tail waves defiance to the hunter who 
failed to take advantage of the momentary pause 
and lost the chance to bring the deer to earth. Few 
hunters, shooting from horseback, have the skill 
required to hit a running quarry. Thoroughly 
warmed, and really alarmed, the deer now makes 
for water, the hounds, giving tongue at every 
stride, hard upon his trail. Unable to throw them 
off, he soon begins to run from patch to patch of 
cane and through the clearings. The hunters have 
scattered and follow as best they can, guided by 
the loud mouthing of the hounds and an occasional 
glimpse of the deer, which, circling around, grad- 

403 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

ually returns to the place from which he was 
jumped. Usually he is shot at several times be- 
fore a well-directed charge from some fortune- 
favored hunter brings him to earth. The horn is 
then blown three blasts and the hunters come to 
"the kill." 

The deer is bled, the viscera removed, and the 
panting hounds well blooded, after which they are 
examined for wounds, cuts and tears, which are 
frequent, and if necessary must be sewn up. The 
deer is then either placed in a pannier or on the pack 
of an extra horse, and if satisfied with the bag the 
party returns to the plantation. If the hacienda of 
a friend or brother hunter is passed, a stop is 
always made for breakfast or luncheon, and stran- 
gers or foreigners in the party are made welcome 
and shown every courtesy. 

Each season many of the best hounds — espe- 
cially the imported ones — are killed by the alli- 
gators which infest the streams. Often they allow 
a deer to pass by, waiting for the dogs, for which 
they seem to have a peculiar fondness. A brief 
struggle and a trail of blood alone tells of the 
untimely end of many a good hound. Because of 
this danger, the best shots are frequently stationed 
near the water to kill the deer and alligator, as 
well as to save the dogs. 

404 



Deer Hunting in Cuba 

A successful deer hunter in Cuba must be en- 
dowed with some spirit of adventurd, possessed of 
a high degree of acuteness of observation and hear- 
ing, and must be a good shot and a first-class 
horseman. Successful hunters are born, not made. 

In our own country there is more or less excite- 
ment "on stand" when a deer is heard coming, and 
with the novice this sometimes develops intO' buck 
fever. But this is insipid excitement when com- 
pared to the high nerve tension and keen thrill 
experienced in still-hunting and stalking. This 
sensation is denied the average member of a hunt 
club, who with hired guide and hounds is guaran- 
teed a shot, stationed on one of a dozen stands In 
the runways, each stand holding a hunter, no 
two of them equipped with the same kind of gun, 
ammunition or hunting costume. The guides do 
the hunting, and when the deer appears, a fusillade 
ensues. The guide finally brings down the game 
at long range, and each of the hunters is positive 
it was "his shot," and for the rest of his life tells 
how some one of his fellows deprived him of the 
"largest buck ever killed in that section." 

Hunters of this type will do well to give Cuba 
a wide berth, and should do their hunting in a 
cozy corner of the club. 

Roger D. Williams. 
40s 



ELEPHANT SEALS OF GUADALUPE 
ISLAND 

The elephant seal is the largest of all fin-footed 
mammals, a full-grown male exceeding twenty-two 
feet in length, with a greater girth than the largest 
walrus. Its name is due partly to its size and 
partly to the remarkable proboscis developed by 
the full-grown male. There are two divisions of 
the family, one living amid the chilly waters of 
antarctic islands, the other along the warm shores 
of the Califomias. The stock is of ancient lineage, 
and the separation took place so long ago that 
marked differences have developed. In remote 
South America the young are born in November, 
when summer is beginning. North of the equator 
they first see the light in March. Climate, season, 
and food slowly wrought changes until the very 
skull became altered, and the Northern offshoot 
acquired the characteristics of a separate species. 

Sixty years ago the Northern elephant seal had 
a range of a thousand miles along the coasts of 
Mexico and California; to-day it lives on a single 

406 



~~"-s^B 




ADULT MALE ELEPHANT SEAL, GUADALUPE ISLAND. 
When the head is turned back, the heavy proboscis overhangs to the rear. 




SOUTH END OF ELEPHANT SEAL ROOKERY, GUADALUPE LSLAND. 
Adult male in foreground; females and young in l)ackground. 



Elephant Seals of Guadalupe Island 

island. Then its numbers swarmed on coast and 
islands alike; now it survives only on an isolated 
beach. Unfortunately for its increase, the elephant 
seal yields a valuable oil, and about the time when 
California was being settled it was killed in such 
numbers that in the year 1869 it was reported by 
its only biographer as "nearly, if not quite, 
extinct." 

Naturalists heard nothing of it for many years, 
and believed it lost to science as well as tO' com- 
merce, a loss that they felt all the more deeply as 
little was known of its ways and appearance, and 
with one or two exceptions, museums were without 
specimens. It had never been photographed, and 
the few drawings in existence were crude and un- 
satisfactory. But the race was not quite extinct, 
and it has lately been my good fortune tO' discover 
the only herd now known to exist in the Pacific. 

In 1884, while making natural history collec- 
tions for the National Museum in California, I 
learned from a seal hunter of the continued ex- 
istence of this seal in Lower California, and at once 
communicated the fact to the secretary of the 
Smithsonian Institution, who asked me by tele- 
graph to charter a schooner for a cruise among the 
uninhabited shores and islands where it was said 
to linger. The search lasted three months, and 

407 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

the result was sixteen skins and skeletons of the 
rarest of North American mammals. The speci- 
mens were not large, and we had little opportunity 
of observing the habits of the animal. 

Our long voyage was not lacking in hard work 
and hazard. There were the regular watches on 
deck, which I shared day and night with the small 
crew; thirsty hunts for wild goats on the moun- 
tainous desert islands to replenish our larder; and 
trips to distant watering places, where the casks 
had to be filled and laboriously gotten on board. 
In our search we must have landed a score of times 
on rocky islets, inhabited by hundreds of sea lions, 
and about which the sea ran high. Day after day 
we tugged at the oars, minutely examining leagues 
of beaches, while the schooner cruised offshore. 
We landed through all degrees of surf, where the 
boat was sometimes swamped. One man fell over- 
board at sea with his rubber hip-boots on, and the 
boat reached him not a second too soon. We lost 
an anchor among the rocks, and smashed the cast- 
iron windlass in the vain effort to save it in a surg- 
ing sea. 

Meanwhile the sealers had resumed their de- 
structive work, and it was a race between us as to 
whether science or the oil makers would get the 
last specimen. 

408 



Elephant Seals of Guadalupe Island 

Then the elephant seal disappeared from view, 
and was not seen for eight years, when it again 
fell to my lot to report its existence. In 1892, I 
was sent by the Secretary of State in a chartered 
vessel to Guadalupe, an uninhabited island lying 
140 miles off the coast of Lower California, to 
identify the species of fur seal reported to exist 
there, the information being desired for the fur 
seal arbitration then being held in Paris. Quite 
unexpectedly we found eight more elephant seals, 
some of which we took for museum purposes. 

Specimens of the large male seals, with proboscis 
fully developed, and information respecting their 
habits were still lacking, and nineteen more years 
passed away before I got the splendid opportunity 
to procure them, which I shall now describe. 

In March, 191 1, while in charge of the deep- 
sea investigations of the U. S. S. Albatross, I called 
at Guadalupe Island with the faint hope that a few 
elephant seals might have escaped the oil hunters 
of former years. The hope was more than real- 
ized: when I left the island after two days' work, 
we had the skins of three giant males, a full-grown 
female, two complete skeletons, and six live year- 
lings. Besides, my portfolio was filled with pho- 
tographs, and my journal with notes on the living 
animals. We left undisturbed behind us a splendid 

409 



'Hunting at High Altitudes 

herd of about 150 elephant seals, and an official an- 
nouncement has been made that the plan proposed 
by the writer for its protection, through concerted 
action by the United States and Mexican authori- 
ties, will be carried out. The principal danger 
which threatens is the fact that its existence has 
been made known to sealers. 

We reached Guadalupe Island March 2, and 
immediately landed the members of the scientific 
staff on the east side for a day's collecting, and pro- 
ceeded at once with the ship to the northwest side 
in the hope of finding a few survivors of the ele- 
phant seal. After a forenoon's search, we located 
a herd of about one hundred and twenty-five on 
what was known to sealers as Elephant Beach. I 
killed one large male and one large female, which 
we skinned and took to the ship. Returning with 
larger boats and some nets, six yearlings were 
captured alive and sent on board. March 4, I 
killed two more of the large males, the skinning 
and skeletonizing of which occupied us for several 
hours. The sea becoming rough, we were com- 
pelled to leave the beach in the afternoon, and the 
embarking of our heavy specimens was difficult and 
dangerous. 

Elephant Beach is located under cliffs a thousand 
feet high, and is flanked by others which extend 

410 



Elephant Seals of Guadalupe Island 

into the sea, thus making the top of the Island 
altogether Inaccessible from this point. Its north- 
ern end is well marked by heavy rock slides. The 
beach is accessible from the sea only, and is usually 
further protected by a heavy surf. It is not more 
than three or four hundred yards In length by 
thirty in width, and the greater part of it is sandy, 
the inner margin being lined with talus from the 
cliffs. 

The seals had little fear of man, and the few 
animals which left the beach after we landed prob- 
ably would not have done so had they not been dis- 
turbed by sailors walking among them. While the 
large specimens were being skinned and skeleton- 
ized, some of the animals slept undisturbed within 
thirty feet of where the men were working. I suc- 
ceeded in obtaining about fifty good photographs, 
showing the general character of the rookery and 
the attitudes of the animals. The herd consisted 
chiefly of large males and immature animals of 
various sizes. There were probably not more than 
fifteen adult females present, and only six of these 
were accompanied by new-born young. The indi- 
cations were, therefore, that other adult females 
would arrive later. 

The three males which we killed were the largest 
in sight, and were found to average just sixteen 

411 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

feet in length, with an average girth of eleven feet. 
The largest specimen of the Northern elephant 
seal previously recorded as actually measured was 
"twenty-two feet long from tip to tip, and yielded 
210 gallons of oil." The adult female that we 
killed was nearly eleven feet long. Some of the 
females with young pups appeared to be slightly 
longer, but we could not measure them and would 
not kill them. There were numerous immature 
males about the size of the adult female, and many 
animals of intermediate sizes between these and the 
new-born pups. Animals of the yearling size were 
distinctly more numerous than those of other sizes. 
The new-born pups, being dusky black, were dis- 
tinguishable in color from the yearlings. 

The skin of the adult male is exceedingly heavy, 
being nearly an inch thick about the forepart of 
the neck. Our knives dulled so rapidly in skinning 
them that it was found necessary to have a grind- 
stone sent ashore and to keep two men busy at the 
task of sharpening. The carcasses were so heavy 
that it required all the strength of half a dozen 
men to turn them over, with the aid of a rope and 
hand-holes cut in the skin. In some places we 
found the blubber to be about four inches thick. 

Unless actually teased by members of our party, 
the old animals did not attempt to leave the beach, 

412 



Elephant Seals of Guadalupe Island 

and many of them, although wide awake, did not 
raise their heads from the sand until closely ap- 
proached. When driven from a comfortable rest- 
ing place, they would soon settle down, and after 
throwing sand on their backs with their front 
flippers, would become quiet again. Both old and 
young have this habit of covering themselves with 
sand. 

Some of the large males, after being driven into 
the sea, soon returned. While in the water they 
remained near the surf, disregarding the boats 
which passed near them, their heads usually held 
well above water, with the proboscis partly re- 
tracted. When making a landing, the large males 
moved very slowly, with frequent pauses, from 
time to time raising and spreading the hind flip- 
pers to get the benefit of every wave that might 
help them through the shallows. When finally 
clear of the water and dependent upon their own 
efforts in getting their ponderous bulk to a dry 
place well up the sloping beach, their progress 
became very slow. 

Most of their attitudes are well shown in the 
accompanying pictures, but it must be confessed 
that we could not have secured all of our photo- 
graphs without first getting the animals thoroughly 
aroused. In some cases I focused my camera on 

413 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

an elephant seal at a distance of eight or ten feet, 
and then had a sailor kick the animal violently in 
the ribs. One of them became thoroughly an- 
gered only after a sailor had jumped upon his back. 
When moving of its own accord, the elephant seal 
arches the body in a way suggestive of the motion 
of the inchworm, drawing the hindquarters well 
forward, with the belly lifted from the ground, and 
then shifting the forequarters with the front flip- 
pers braced outward. 

The large males which accompanied the nursing 
females were frequently engaged in fights with 
unattached males. There had evidently been con- 
siderable fighting, as their necks were more or less 
raw, and in some cases had festering sores. In 
comparison, the necks of the younger males were 
smooth and without tooth-marks. In fighting, the 
large males crawl slowly and laboriously within 
striking distance, and then, rearing on the front 
flippers and drawing the heavy, pendent proboscis 
into wrinkled folds well up on top of the snout, 
strike at each other's necks with their large canines. 
The fighting was accompanied with more or less 
snorting, but we heard none of the extremely loud 
bellowing described by writers as characteristic of 
the antarctic species of elephant seal. 

The skin of the under surface of the neck and 
414 



Elephant Seals of Guadalupe Island 

forepart of the breast is greatly thickened. It is 
almost hairless, and years of fighting has given it 
an exceedingly rough and calloused surface. This 
shield, as we may call the part of the animal most 
exposed to attack when fighting, extends from the 
throat just below the base of the jaws down to 
the level of the flippers, and rather more than half- 
way back on each side of the neck and breast. 
Although ugly wounds are inflicted by the large 
canines, the heavy skin in no case seems to be 
broken through. While the animal takes good 
care of its head and proboscis, the calloused breast- 
shield is freely exposed to the enemy. The fighting 
is not of the desperate sort indulged in by the fur 
seal, and the contestants soon separate. There 
seems to be no actual seizing and holding of the 
skin, and after each sharp blow the head is quickly 
withdrawn and held aloft. 

When the head of the male is elevated, the skin 
at the top of the neck and shoulders is thrown 
into a series of eight or ten heavy folds, which 
extend downward and forward. When the animal 
is at rest, with its head stretched forward on the 
sand, these folds do not show. The fore flippers 
are large and thick, and have heavy claws, the 
posterior three claws being well separated. 

The proboscis of the elephant seal is broad and 
415 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

fleshy to the tip, where the nostrils are placed wide 
apart, the nasal openings being directed somewhat 
downward and outward. The length of the pro- 
boscis forward from the canines Is about equal to 
the distance between the canine and the eye, and 
Its width Is about equal to the space between the 
eyes. The proboscis is exceedingly thick and 
heavy. In one of our specimens, and that not the 
largest. It was about nine inches long. When the 
animal Is crawling, the proboscis is relaxed and 
pendent; when sleeping, it rests upon the sand in a 
shapeless mass. When annoyed persistently, the 
old male slowly raises his head, and retracting 
the proboscis, opens his mouth wide. He does not 
bellow loudly, but there is much blowing out of 
the breath through the nostrils with a gurgling 
sound, the whole proboscis vibrating heavily with 
the effort. Sometimes when the head Is turned up, 
the proboscis relaxes until it hangs Into the open 
mouth. The animal may continue to turn its head 
over backward until the half-relaxed proboscis ac- 
tually overhangs to the rear. In fighting. It is 
closely retracted, and is kept out of harm's way, 
for many of the animals with badly damaged necks 
had trunks showing no injury whatever. 

When the proboscis Is fully retracted. It exhibits 
three bulging transverse folds on top, separated by 

416 



Elephant Seals of Giiadahpe Island 

deep grooves. There is little indication of the 
proboscis in the half-grown male. Under excite- 
ment both female and young extend the nose into 
a sharply pointed tip. 

Nothing was found in the stomach of the ele- 
phant seal that would serve to indicate the nature 
of its food; in fact, we never found anything but 
a handful of sand. Our captive elephant seals re- 
fused to eat fresh fish during the two days' voyage 
to San Diego, and took no food for more than a 
week after their journey overland. In the New 
York Aquarium they have subsisted entirely on 
fresh fish cut into moderate-sized pieces, but they 
have greatly preferred fish that was alive. Live 
crabs and bits of seaweed placed in the pool always 
remained untouched. Like the fur seal, they doubt- 
less feed on live squid, but they refused the dead 
squid we took pains to procure for them. 

The yearling elephant seal is somewhat heavier 
and longer than the nursing pup, but it is propor- 
tionately slender, is brownish-gray in color, and 
has longer whiskers. As I have said, the nursing 
pup is black, and its length is about four feet; it is 
so remarkably fat as to be virtually unable to move, 
while the yearling is fairly active. None of the 
six yearlings brought to the New York Aquarium 
exceeded five feet in length, their weights varying 

417 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

from 167 pounds to 301 pounds, the males being 
heavier than the females. 

The yearling frequently emits a sound not un- 
like the scream of the peacock. On first landing, 
we were unable to account for these singular noises, 
and ascribed them to sea-gulls, but soon discovered 
their true source. This call, or scream, is most 
frequently heard when the yearling is disturbed or 
trampled on by larger animals. 

The capture of the six live yearlings was a 
simple matter. Some heavy pieces of netting were 
thrown over the animals, into which they were 
tightly rolled, so that the sailors could handle them 
without fear that they would bite or climb out of 
the boats. On board ship they were for a time 
given the freedom of the decks, but later were kept 
in a pen. They showed no inclination to bite either 
while on the ship or when they were received at 
the New York Aquarium. 

The photographs of the young animals while at 
the Aquarium show some attitudes which were not 
observed on the beach at Guadalupe Island. While 
the animal is plump and rounded when at rest on 
the floor of the empty seal pool, it may look slim 
when stretching up its head to the hand of a visitor. 
The neck becomes remarkably drawn out, and it 
may reach upward until the tips of the flippers are 

418 



Elephant Seals of Guadalupe Island 

lifted from the flooring. The animals often go to 
sleep under water, stretched out on the floor of the 
pool. 

When the Albatross left Guadalupe on March 
4, 191 1, there were not fewer than one hundred 
and twenty-five elephant seals at the rookery. As 
the number of adult females present was consider- 
ably less than the number of adult males, and less 
than half the number of yearlings, there was rea- 
son to believe that the female portion of the herd 
would be better represented before the end of the 
month. The present size of the herd — summer of 
19 1 2 — may therefore be estimated at one hundred 
and fifty animals of all classes. 

Eleven days later, when the Albatross reached 
San Cristobal Bay, on the peninsula, I examined 
the site of the old rookery at that locality without 
finding any Indication that It had been occupied. 
We found no signs of elephant seals at either San 
Benito or Cedros Islands, where the ship called on 
the voyage southward. I examined the shores of 
San Benito very thoroughly. Both of these Islands 
were formerly breeding resorts of the species. 

We may now safely nssume that the Northern 
elephant seal exists only on Guadalupe Island, and 
that we have ascertained about how many of Its 
race remain. We have learned from examination 

419 



^Hunting at High Altitudes 

of the skulls of mature animals that the species is 
unquestionably distinct from its Southern relative. 
The character of the proboscis of the adult male, 
the appearance of the new-born young, and other 
facts in the natural history of the animal, have 
been ascertained. The completion of a group of 
elephant seals in the American Museum of Natural 
History in New York, mounted according to pho- 
tographs and actual measurements, will soon give 
us a graphic view of this large and remarkable 
North American animal that came so near to being 
lost tO' science. 

Charles Haskins Townsend. 



420 



GAME PRESERVATION COMMITTEE 

At the annual meeting of the Club, held In Jan- 
uary, 1 910, Mr. J. Walter Wood submitted a 
resolution, which read : 

Resolved, That the President of the Club appoint a 
Committee of six to consider what steps should be 
taken to broaden the activities and develop the useful- 
ness of the Boone and Crockett Club, more especially 
with reference to its taking a still more active part 
in the protection of game; the said committee to re- 
port to the Executive Committee from time to time, 
and to make a full report with recommendations at 
the next annual meeting. 

The resolution was adopted, and a committee 
appointed, consisting of the following members: 
J. Walter Wood, Chairman, George Bird Grin- 
nell, Chas. H. Townsend, Chas, Sheldon, W. Red- 
mond Cross, and George Shiras, 3d. 

This committee held frequent meetings, and at 
the annual meeting, January, 191 1, made a report 
with recommendations. It advised that to the 
standing committees of the club there be added a 

421 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

Committee on Game Preservation, to consist of 
six members, the Chairman to be annually ap- 
pointed by the Executive Committee for the term 
of one year, the other five members to be ap- 
pointed by the Chairman, subject to the advice 
and consent of the President of the Club ; and that 
the work of this committee should deal largely 
with the question of game refuges. 

The report treated of game and some fur-bear- 
ing animals, and suggested certain legislation. The 
report was adopted. 

At a meeting held February 3, 191 1, the Ex- 
ecutive Committee appointed a standing Commit- 
tee on Game Preservation. This consisted of 
George Bird Grinnell, Chairman ; Chas. H. Town- 
send, Secretary; J. Walter Wood, Chas. Sheldon, 
E. Hubert Litchfield, W. Redmond Cross, and 
Amos R. E. Pinchot. 

The Executive Committee on April 12 passed 
the following resolution : 

Resolved, That full power be and hereby is given 
to the Game Preservation Committee to act for the 
Club in all matters pertaining to the preservation of 
wild life on this continent, and to take such steps in 
regard to these matters as in the judgment of the 
said committee shall be most effective. 

Later in the year, the Game Preservation Com- 
422 



The Game Preservation Committee 

mittee recommended, and the Executive Commit- 
tee passed, the following resolution : 

Resolved, That the President be, and he hereby is, 
authorized and empowered to appoint a committee 
with full power to raise an endowment fund, and also 
a special fund from or through the members of the 
Club ; such special fund and interest from the endow- 
ment fund to be expended by the Game Preservation 
Committee in the preservation of the wild life of 
America, and under such restrictions as the Execu- 
tive Committee may from time to time impose. 

This resolution was passed, and a Finance Com- 
mittee was appointed, of which Dr. Lewis Ruther- 
furd Morris was Chairman. Some months later 
Dr. Morris resigned, and Henry G. Gray, the 
present Secretary of the Club, was appointed in 
his place. Through the energy of the Finance 
Committee funds have been raised to render effec- 
tive the work of the Game Preservation Com- 
mittee. 

The Game Preservation Committee's report for 
the year 191 1 recommended the laying out of a 
comprehensive plan of national game refuges, and 
with this in view, it worked with other game pro- 
tective associations, and especially with the Biolog- 
ical Survey, from which it received a memorandum 
on the preservation of North American game, 

423 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

which Is printed with its report. It also announced 
a declaration of the policy already carried out by 
the Club, and to be continued. This is that the 
club should "concentrate its efforts upon projects 
directly and indirectly concerned with the preser- 
vation of big game, while on questions concerning 
birds and fish the name and influence of the Club" 
should be used to further worthy movements, but 
that steps to inaugurate such movements should be 
left to others. The report discussed some pending 
Federal legislation and the game situation, in- 
cluding in this last some fur-bearing and almost 
extinct mammals. 

At the very close of the year, after much cor- 
respondence with the Secretary of the Interior and 
Colonel — then Major — Brett, about twenty ante- 
lope were trapped in the Yellowstone National 
Park, of which half were sent to the National 
Bison Range in Montana, and half to the Wichita 
Game Preserve. Through lack of experience on 
the part of those who crated the animals, the crates 
were made too roomy, with the unfortunate result 
that a number of the antelope injured themselves 
in transit and died. Nevertheless six or seven 
reached the Montana range in fair condition, and 
eight the Wichita reserve. In May, 19 13, there 
were five antelope living and in good condition on 

424 



The Game Preservation Committee 

the Montana Bison Range, and on the Wichita 
reserve, two — a male and a female — are alive and 
seemingly doing well. 

Colonel Brett was kind enough to write out ifor 
the benefit of the Club a detailed report of the 
method by which these antelope were captured. 

The Game Preservation Committee appointed 
for the year 19 12 consisted of Chas. Sheldon, 
Chairman ; Chas. H. Townsend, Secretary ; J. Wal- 
ter Wood, W. Redmond Cross, Edward Hubert 
Litchfield, E. W. Nelson, Alexander Lambert, 
M.D., with Geo', Bird Grinnell and Dr. Lewis 
Rutherfurd Morris as advisory members. The 
Committee's report for the year was submitted at 
the annual meeting, January, 19 13, and accepted 
by the Club. As usual, it dealt with the work of 
the year, with some pending legislation dealing 
with migratory birds, and the fur seal, and with 
the game situation. While the reports as to the 
condition of the antelope are discouraging — it 
being concluded that the species, although every- 
where protected in the United States, is every- 
where diminishing — the news with relation to the 
wild sheep is more cheering. Many more mountain 
sheep exist in the United States than is generally 
known, though a variety of conditions tend con- 
stantly to reduce their numbers. Two or three 

42s 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

new forms of sheep have recently been described. 

The most Important part of this report is found 
in the general remarks on game protection, which 
suggest certain novel ideas, which it seems de- 
sirable to print in full : 

"A great and increasing interest is being shown 
throughout the country in game protection. This 
is evidenced by the considerable number of meas- 
ures on this subject now before Congress, and in 
the more enlightened character of State legislation 
in matters pertaining to game. 

"In view of the interest and co-operation of the 
Forest Service in connection with the protection of 
game in the National forests, It would be extremely 
helpful in this direction if the forest rangers could 
be made ex-officio deputy State game wardens in 
all of the States. Certain States already have laws 
to this effect, and the Boone and Crockett Club 
might help in bringing about this legislation in 
other States. A great barrier to the proper pro- 
tection of game in the States is frequently found 
in the difficulty of impartial enforcement of the 
law. This might be helped forward considerably 
by the forest rangers. Their influence at the same 
time would be strengthened if they were officially 
a part of the State game protection service. 

"The game protection movement in this country 
426 



The Game Preservation Committee 

is In the nature of a great reform movement. As 
such it contains extreme reformers and reactionary 
reformers. The extremists at present are tending 
toward the discouragement even of reasonable 
sport, and their expressed views seem to imply that 
all effective game protection is contained in the one 
word — Prohibition. 

"The Game Preservation Committee does not 
sympathize with either extreme. We believe that 
reasonable sport is admissible. We believe that 
prohibition is only one of the many elements in 
the problems. We would completely prohibit 
where necessary, or approve the shooting of ani- 
mals and game birds where It can be done without 
detriment to the breeding reserve tO' maintain the 
stock unimpaired In numbers. We believe that to 
discourage the sportsman will destroy the most 
effective force now working for game protection. 

"But the sportsman must conduct his sport like 
a gentleman ; he should be the first to refrain from 
shooting animals in places where they are so dimin- 
ished in numbers that the killing of them will tend 
toward their extermination, or even endanger their 
Increase; he should only secure trophies which he 
himself kills, and should never buy them except 
for purposes of scientific study in museums. 

"A field hitherto largely neglected now demands 
427 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

the attention of sportsmen. They should make the 
results of sport available for the study of natural 
history. Hitherto sportsmen have largely retained 
and isolated their trophies instead of making them 
available to our museums for study. As a result, 
the museums to-day lack sufficient specimens of 
some of our important large game animals for 
comparative study. They are totally lacking in 
skulls of the eastern elk, the plains grizzly, and the 
sheep of the Black Hills, all of which are now 
extinct. There is in our rriuseums a scarcity of 
specimens of certain other large animals, many of 
which are approaching extinction without being 
properly represented by specimens. Indeed, study 
series of some really common game animals are 
still lacking. Sportsmen have begun to interest 
themselves in allying their sport with natural his- 
tory, and we believe that the time has come for 
every sportsman to associate himself with some 
museum with a view to contributing his quota to 
the knowledge of our native fauna. 

"The Game Committee believes that most of the 
measures proposed for enactment in laws are not 
of a character to afford a permanent solution for 
the preservation of American game. They lack the 
needed elements of variability and quick adaptabil- 
ity to diverse and constantly changing conditions. 

428 



The Game Preservation Committee 

Advantages of proposed legislation against the use 
of improved firearms will be offset by increasing 
population, resulting in a proportionate increase 
of hunters. This proposed legislation would also 
arouse active opposition by powerful interests — a 
most undesirable thing because the first step toward 
effective laws and the enforcing of them is harmony 
among all the interests. Long close seasons are 
often necessary, sometimes unnecessary, often bene- 
ficial, sometimes harmful. The resulting advan- 
tages are offset, as experience demonstrates, by the 
killing of the increased supply of game so rapidly 
on the opening of the season as to restore the old 
conditions. Appeals to gunners for moderation in 
killing have only slight effects, for a proportion of 
gunners are too thoughtless to heed them. 

"Whatever kinds of firearms are used, natural 
enemies, increasing population, the gradual occu- 
pation by settlers of the game country, motor cars, 
improved power boats, the extension of trolleys, of 
railroads, of good roads; in fact, all advancing 
material interests, are Inevitable improvements 
which tend to exterminate our game. What, then, 
can be done to offset these elements and preserve it? 

"From the present outlook it seems that the ante- 
lope should never again be molested by the sports- 
man. At present in all places in the United States 

429 



Hunting at High Altitudes 

mountain sheep should not be hunted. In the 
future, in some localities, they may increase to the 
point where a surplus may be killed. In the United 
States grizzly bears, except those which kill cattle, 
should not, for the present, be killed. In localities 
deer should be more closely protected. The kill- 
ing of surplus elk outside the Yellowstone Park is 
a field for sport. The same is true in a number of 
places of deer, moose, caribou and mountain goats. 

"The Game Committee believes that the com- 
mon practice of advocating and passing rigid laws, 
only changeable by legislative action, is wholly in- 
adequate to meet the situation. It can never put 
the matter on the right basis of quick adaptation 
to changing and varied conditions. The question 
calls for serious study and a new point of view. 

"We therefore urge continued efforts in behalf 
of the valuable measures already proposed, namely, 
better means of enforcing game laws, more effec- 
tive means for the extermination of natural ene- 
mies of all kinds of game, and a more effective 
agitation of this aspect of the question, laws in all 
States for non-sale of game, game refuges, and 
game propagation. 

"We also urge careful consideration of the fol- 
lowing subjects: Laws including permissive close 
seasons, variable bag limits and other necessary 

430 



The Game Preservation Committee 

restrictions. But the laws should accomplish these 
ends by creating commissions for the preservation 
of game, and investing them with elastic powers 
and full responsibilities. These commissions should 
have full authority to make or unmake, lengthen 
or shorten close seasons; to increase or decrease 
bag limits; to set aside and entirely prohibit shoot- 
ing on areas of land or water necessary for feed- 
ing grounds of wild fowl, shore birds, game birds 
or animals ; to establish rest days on which neither 
game nor water fowl can be disturbed ; in fact, full 
and complete powers to establish such constitu- 
tional regulations or restrictions at any time or m 
any section independently, as varying and chang- 
ing conditions may require adequately to conserve 
the game. 

"If this suggestion seems radical, it is to be 
noted that it is nothing more than the application 
within the respective States of the theory of game 
preservation which is contained in the bill for 
Federal control of migratory birds, and in part of 
the present Alaska game law. 

"Whenever possible, the Game Committee seeks 
to restore big game animals tO' areas where they 
can increase and afford sport. Since some of our 
animals are on the verge of extinction, they can 
never again serve that purpose, but must if possible 

431 



Memories of a Bear Hunter 

be permanently preserved. We desire to hand 
down to future generations opportunities for sport 
as well as the animals that we have hunted, but the 
sport must be consistent with the effective preser- 
vation of the animals. 

"The Game Committee believes that any ex- 
treme prohibitive policy will In the end react 
and finally work against the preservation of game." 



432 



Brief History 

of the 

Boone and Crockett Club 



Brief History 

OF THE 

Boone and Crockett Club 

In December, 1887, Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, 
then member of the New York Assembly, at a 
dinner at his residence in New York City, proposed 
the formation of a club of American hunting rifle- 
men, to be called the Boone and Crockett Club. 
The suggestion was warmly welcomed by those 
present, among whom were E. P. Rogers, Archi- 
bald Rogers, J. Coleman Drayton, Thomas Paton, 
Col. J. E. Jones, Elliott Roosevelt, J. West Roose- 
velt, Rutherford Stuyvesant and George Bird 
Grinnell. A constitution was formulated, and in 
January, 1888, the Club was organized with the 
following officers and members : 

President, Theodore Roosevelt; Secretary, 
Archibald Rogers. Members: Albert Bierstadt, 
Heber R. Bishop, Benjamin F. Bristow, J. Cole* 

435 



The Boone and Crockett Club. 

man Drayton, D. G. Elliott, George Bird Grinnell, 
Arnold Hague, James E. Jones, Clarence King, 
Wm. H. Merrill, Jr., Thomas Paton, John J. 
Plerrepont, W. Hallett Phillips, E. P. Rogers, 
Elliott Roosevelt, J. E. Roosevelt, J. W. Roose- 
velt, Rutherford Stuyvesant, W. A. Wadsworth, 
Bronson Rumsey, Lawrence Rumsey and W. D. 
Pickett. 

As time went on, these men added to their 
numbers others interested in the same objects, so 
that now, for many years, the Boone and Crockett 
Club has had one hundred regular members^ — its 
limit — and from twenty-five to forty associate 
members. Among the latter are a number of men 
who have performed notable services in behalf of 
the objects to which the Club is devoted. 
These objects were announced as being: 
( I ) To promote manly sport with the rifle. 
(2) To promote travel and exploration in the 
wild and unknown, or but partially known, portions 
of the country. (3 ) To work for the preservation 
of the large game of this country, and so far as 
possible to further legislation for that purpose, 
and to assist in enforcing the existing laws. 
(4) To promote Inquiry into and to record obser- 
vations on the habits and natural history of the 
various wild animals. ( 5 ) To bring about among 

436 



The Boone and Crockett Club. 

the members interchange of opinion and ideas on 
hunting, travel and exploration; on the various 
kinds of hunting rifles; on the haunts of game 
animals, etc. 

Such were the purposes of the Club when it was 
formed, and for a number of years each received 
its fair share of attention. Gradually, however, 
the settlement of the country and the sweep of 
population to the westward made it more and more 
difficult to carry out the two first-named, while 
the same causes magnified the importance of the 
third and fourth of these objects. Great changes 
have taken place in portions of the United States, 
where at the date of the formation of the Club 
wild game was found in abundance, and over much 
of the western country the advancing tide of 
settlement has swept out of existence all the game. 
The Boone and Crockett Club, organized as an 
association of hunting riflemen, to promote manly 
sport with the rifle, and to Investigate the wild and 
unknown portions of the country, can no longer 
do either of these things within the limits of the 
United States. Little hunting trips may be made, 
and occasionally a head or two of game killed, but 
the old wild frontier of the limitless prairie and 
of the steep and rugged unknown mountains Is 

gone forever. 

437 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

In the years that have elapsed since Its organiza- 
tion, the Boone and Crockett Club has accom- 
plished a number of things which entitle It tO' the 
lasting gratitude of the American people. Through 
the efforts of its members have been carried on a 
number of successful battles for good things, whose 
Importance the Club saw far In advance of the 
public opinion of the time, and which in recent 
years has come to be generally appreciated, 
although not as yet wholly understood. 

Among the achievements which may fairly be 
claimed for the club are these : 

( 1 ) The carrying on to a successful end the 
fight for the preservation of the Yellowstone 
National Park. This fight commenced in 1882, 
long before the Boone and Crockett Club was 
organized, yet the men who began the fight and 
for many years carried It on alone, were among 
the first members of the Boone and Crockett Club, 
and the Club at once took up and carried through 
to Its end the work that they had started. Among 
these men were Arnold Hague, Wm. Hallett 
Phillips, Archibald Rogers, George G. Vest and 
George Bird Grinnell. 

(2) The forest reserve system now in success- 
ful operation in the United States and covering 

lands aggregating one hundred millions of acres, 

438 



V 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

is due in large measure to the efforts of the Boone 
and Crockett Club. The late Wm. Hallett Phillips 
deserves much credit for aiding in the passage of 
the Act of March 3, 1891, a section of which 
authorized the President, in his discretion, to set 
aside public lands for forest reserves, while 
Gen. John W. Noble, a member of the Club, then 
Secretary of the Interior, established the first re- 
serves under proclamation of President Harrison. 

(3) In 1894 the Boone and Crockett Club 
founded and took control of the New York 
Zoological Society. Credit for this belongs chiefly 
to Madison Grant, C. Grant La Farge and some 
others. 

(4) In the year 1897 the club succeeded in 
having a bill passed by the New York Legislature 
which forbade the hunting of deer with dogs in 
the Adirondacks and the killing of deer in the 
water. This ended a crusade which had been 
going on for fifteen years or more. 

(5) In 1902 the Club secured the passage of a 
bill to protect Alaska game — the first law enacted 
for this purpose. This bill was drafted by mem- 
bers of the Club, Madison Grant and Hon. John 
F. Lacey; and the latter, with the help of such 
public interest as was aroused by the Club, suc- 
ceeded in pushing the bill through Congress. 

439 



\The Boone and Crockett Club 

(6) The idea of game refuges — sanctuaries 
within which neither birds nor mammals should be 
pursued or injured — originated with the Club, and 
was first brought up at a meeting of the Executive 
Committee, held at the residence of Dr. Lewis 
Rutherford Morris. While this idea was more 
quickly taken up by the general public than most 
game protective suggestions, and while it has been 
adopted by a number of States, it has not yet been 
practicable to secure from Congress legislation 
looking to the establishment of such reservations 
on Federal lands, except in the case of the National 
parks, two buffalo reservations and some bird 
islands. On the other hand, certain States^ — as 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota and some 
others — have been quick to grasp the suggestion 
and have established such refuges. One of those 
in Massachusetts may perhaps save from extinc- 
tion the heath hen, the eastern form of the 
pinnated grouse, which but a few years since 
promised soon to be numbered with America's 
extinct birds. 

Suggestions pointing to the establishment of 
game refuges had been made earlier, but not in 
such definite and concrete shape as to be compre- 
hended by the public. In 1876, in a periodical 
known as the Penn Monthly, Dr. J. A. Allen, a 

440 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

member of the club, made what is perhaps the first 
hint of the game refuge idea in the United States, 
when he suggested that, on the Western plains, 
tracts might be set aside within which it should be 
unlawful toi pursue or injure the buffalo'. 

(7) The Boone and Crockett Club originated 
and caused to be introduced in Congress and to re- 
ceive favorable action by both Houses, the bill es- 
tabhshing the Glacier National Park. The setting 
aside of this territory, extraordinary for natural 
beauty, as well as for its availability for a fish and 
game preserve, is a great achievernent. The 
region includes an area of about fourteen hundred 
square miles of rough mountains, many of which 
are permanently snow-capped and carry glaciers 
near their summits. The deep lakes which lie in the 
valleys among these mountains are full of fish, and 
during the season of migration are dark with wild- 
fowl. Moose, elk, mountain sheep, grizzly and 
black bears, and white-tailed and mule deer have 
been found in this region up to within a few years, 
and in ancient times it was a favorite feeding 
ground for the mountain bison. 

( 8 ) Great parks and immense reservations have 
recently been set aside in Canada, and a number 
of these parks have been stocked with native game. 
The largest herd of buffalo in existence was 

441 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

purchased from M. Pablo in Montana and trans- 
ported to Canada to be set free In a park near 
Edmonton. All this recent work has been done at 
the instance of a member of the Club, the Hon. 
Frank Oliver, Minister of the Interior for the 
Dominion of Canada. 



I. 

The Yellowstone National Park. 

In the year 1869 a hunting party from Helena, 
Montana Territory, stumbled into the region of 
hot springs and geysers, now the Yellowstone 
Park. The stories which they brought back were 
scarcely credited, and in 1870 the Washburn party 
set out for the locality and at length returned with 
authentic accounts of many of its wonders. These 
were thoroughly exploited with pen and voice by 
N. P. Langford. In the summer of 1871 parties 
under Capt. J. W. Barlow, U. S. Engineers, and 
Dr. F. V. Hayden, U. S. Geological Survey, made 
explorations of the region. Mr. Langford's writ- 
ings and lectures had already aroused much public 
interest, and Congress was ready to yield to the 
influence of Dr. Hayden and to pass (March i, 
1872) the Organic Act by which this area was set 

442 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

aside and designated "as a public park or pleasure 
ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the 
people." The Park was tO' be under the exclusive 
control of the Secretary of the Interior, who was 
authorized to make regulations for the preserva- 
tion from Injury of all timber, mineral deposits, 
natural curiosities or wonders within the Park. 
This was essentially the language of the statute, 
but no methods were Indicated by which the Secre- 
tary of the Interior should carry out the law. 

At the time Dr. Hayden drew the Park bill, the 
country had not been surveyed, and no one knew 
just where the territorial lines were to run, or, 
Indeed, where the Park lay. Dr. Hayden chose 
for his initial points the natural features of the 
landscape, and made his lines meridians and par- 
allels of latitude. His selections were marvelously 
fortunate. As Col. George S. Anderson has said, 
"They seemed almost a work of inspiration. The 
north line takes In the large slopes on the north 
of Mt. Everts and the valley of the East Fork of 
the Yellowstone, where the elk, deer, antelope and 
mountain sheep wander by thousands; it leaves 
outside every foot of land adapted to agriculture; 
also^ — and this Is more important than all — it 
passes over the rugged and Inaccessible summit of 
the snowy range, where the hardiest vandal dare 

443 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

not put his shack." As with the lines on the north, 
so with those on the east, on the south and the 
west; they are protected by mountain heights and 
they exclude all land of value for agricultural 
purposes, or even for grazing. 

The first Superintendent of the Park was N. P. 
Langford, appointed May lo, 1872, to serve with- 
out salary. He never drew any salary, never lived 
In the Park, and protected it only by reports and 
recommendations. No one could have been more 
enthusiastic than he, nor more earnest in his wish 
to see the Park protected, but the reservation was 
a new thing, and neither he nor anyone else knew 
what It needed, nor was the public well enough 
acquainted with it to feel any special interest In It. 

In the spring of 1876, P. W. Norris was 
appointed to succeed Mr. Langford. Something 
more than a year later an appropriation was had 
for the Park, and a small force of employees was 
engaged, some of whom did good work in trying to 
protect the forests from fires. Norris was a de- 
stroyer of natural wonders, collecting great quan- 
tities of beautiful specimens, which he shipped out 
of the Park. He professed to desire the protection 
of game, but not the abolition of hunting. Norris 
was followed by P. H. Conger, in 1882, who made 
the usual recommendations that various things be 

444 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

protected. In August, 1884, he was succeeded by 
R. E. Carpenter, who was removed in May, 1885. 
David W. Wear was the next and last civilian 
Superintendent. 

Meantime, in the year 1882, soon after the 
completion to the Park of the Northern Pacific 
Railroad, the region and its wonders became acces- 
sible to the public. Among those who visited it 
were a number of men controlling some capital and 
more or less familiar with large affairs. They saw 
the possibilities of the Park as a pleasure resort, 
and at once set to work to gain such control of it 
as they could, and tO' secure a monopoly of any- 
thing that might fall in their way. They succeeded 
in securing from the Assistant Secretary of the 
Interior a provisional lease, said to have been for 
ten plots of six hundred and forty acres, each at a 
different point of interest. These plots were to be 
so located as to cover the various natural wonders 
of the Park, where this was practicable. The 
syndicate, as it was called — the Yellowstone Park 
Improvement Company — started a saw-mill and 
began to cut and saw timber in the Park for the 
construction of their various hotels and other 
buildings. As laborers in large numbers were to 
be employed through the winter, the company 
tried to give out a contract for twenty thousand 

445 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

pounds of wild meat at five cents a pound, for the 
boarding houses for their laborers and mechanics. 

In the year 1883, the company put up tents for 
the use of guests, and later put up light frame 
buildings. About this time Gen. Sheridan came 
through from the south with President Arthur. It 
was this same year that Mr. Arnold Hague came 
into the Park to take charge of the Geological 
Survey work there. 

The effort to secure leases which in practice 
would give the Yellowstone Park Improvement 
Company a monopoly of the Park, the high- 
handed way in which they seized and used the 
timber, and their efforts to give out a contract for 
wild meat, aroused a storm of indignation among 
the people, who best knew what such acts must 
mean for the public. In the autumn of 1882 the 
Forest and Stream attacked the proposed monopoly 
and began a fight which was kept up for a dozen 
years. Senator Geo. G. Vest sprang to the defense 
of the Park In Congress, and Messrs. Hague, 
Phillips and Rogers rendered invaluable aid. A 
campaign of education was carried on which had 
a great effect on the country, and thousands of 
petitions, signed by tens of thousands of people 
Interested In natural things, came into Congress 
and strengthened the hands of Senator Vest. 

446 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

The work of protecting the Park was difficult, 
for there was no law governing it. As already 
said, the organic law authorized the Secretary of 
the Interior to make regulations for its govern- 
ment and protection, but prescribed no methods 
for the enforcement of such regulations as he might 
lay down. The regulations were practically a dead 
letter. The people cut down the forests, killed 
the game or chopped out wagon loads of the beau- 
tiful geyser formations, which they hauled away 
for a few miles and then dumped on the prairie. 
Violators of the regulations could not be punished. 
If this was true of the casual citizen, it was much 
more so of a corporation with a large force of 
men, which in a high-handed way was seizing and 
converting to its own use timber, game and other 
valuable things within the Park. 

The dangers which threatened were very real, 
and continued for a dozen years. About 1883 
efforts began to be made to secure from Congress 
legislation which should afford protection to life 
and property within the reservation, and should 
prevent the destruction of the forests, natural 
wonders and game within its borders. In season 
and out of season. Senator Geo. G. Vest, later a 
member of the club, urged this matter in the 
United States Senate, and was ably supported by 

447 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

many other members. From 1883 ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ 
the year 1890 bills to remedy these dangerous con- 
ditions passed the Senate at four sessions of Con- 
gress — twice by a unanimous vote — but there was 
a strong effort on the part of a lobby in the House 
to use the National Park for private purposes, and 
this lobby always succeeded in having attached to 
the Senate bill a rider granting a right of way tO' a 
railroad through the Park. Members of the 
Boone and Crockett Club fought this amendment 
from the beginning. They felt that a railroad in 
the Park would be a grave danger to the National 
pleasure ground, and if one railway was permitted 
to run its lines there, the same privilege might not 
be denied to others, and before long the reserva- 
tion would be gridironed by tracks. 

As we all know, the efforts of the Yellowstone 
Park Improvement Company to secure a monopoly 
of the Park, and of the lobby to secure the right 
of way for a railroad, were eventually blocked, but 
much energy and hard work and a great amount 
of ink was expended before this was accomplished. 

By the Act of March 3, 1883, the Secretary of 
War was authorized — on request from the Secre- 
tary of the Interior — to detail a force of troops 
for duty in the Park, the commander of the troops 
to be the acting Superintendent. The first officer 

448 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

detailed under the new appointment was Captain 
Moses Harris, First Cavalry, a member of the 
Club, who toolc charge August 20, 1886, and 
from this time forth things in the Park began 
to wear a different aspect. Captain Harris had 
a troop of cavalry, which he used with energy 
and discretion, and his efficiency was evidenced by 
the amount of confiscated property which he ac- 
cumulated. He made splendid efforts to prevent 
fires, to protect game and to put an end to the 
defacement of geysers. He early called attention 
to the immense herds of elk which occupied the 
road between Gardiner and Cooke City, and in his 
reports pointed out the difficulty of protecting this 
game from the public which traveled to and from 
the mining settlement of Cooke City. Captain 
Harris remained In the Park for nearly three 
years, and left It, having Initiated and put in force 
most of the protective measures that have since 
been used. 

In 1889 an additional troop of cavalry was 
detailed for duty during the summer, and stationed 
In the Lower Geyser Basin. Capt. F. N. Boutelle 
became the Superintendent. He was an ardent 
sportsman and game protector, and especially in- 
terested in the stocking of barren waters of the 
Park with game fish. This he caused to be done. 

449 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

In February, 1891, Captain Geo. S. Anderson, 
a member of the Club, came to the Park and re- 
lieved Captain Boutelle. Captain Anderson, while 
wholly new to the work, was a most able officer, 
and In Ed. Wilson, one of the scouts In the Park, 
he found a single, able assistant. This man was 
devoted to his work and succeeded In arresting 
a number of violators of the rules; but in the 
summer of 1891 he disappeared, and his place 
was taken by Felix Burgess. 

Captain Anderson's treatment of the Park was 
most judicious. Where another officer might have 
roughly expelled a man from the Park for writing 
his name or scratching his Initials on the beautiful 
geyser formation, Captain Anderson had the man 
brought back to the place, and supplied with soap 
and scrubbing brush or some tool, and obliged him 
to erase the writing. His Ingenious punishments 
greatly Impressed the visiting public, and a wholc^ 
some respect for law began toi be felt. 

At this time the Park held a considerable herd 
of wild buffalo. The heads and hides of buffalo 
had now become sO' scarce that they were very 
valuable, and in. the minds of taxidermists and 
hunters seemed beyond price. For some time the 
killing of buffalo near and In the Yellowstone Park 
went on without being suspected; but In 1894 the 

450 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

scout Burgess detected a hunter ia the act of 
butchering a number that he had just killed in the 
Astringent and Pelican Creek districts. The 
poacher, Howell, was engaged in skinning a cow 
and was surrounded by the bodies of seven freshly 
killed buffalo, of which six were cows and one a 
yearling calf. Howell was arrested, held for some 
time in confinement and then set free, with orders 
to leave the Park and not return. There was still 
no law under which he could be punished. 

This crime was undoubtedly one of the best 
things that ever happened for the Park. It was 
thoroughly exploited in Forest and Stream^ and 
afterward in other periodicals, and created an 
interest throughout the country, which brought 
about the passage of the Park Protection Act, 
signed by President Cleveland, May 7, 1894. 
This was the ultimate reward of a number of men 
who, for a dozen years, had been working for the 
protection and betterment of the Yellowstone Park. 
It may fairly be said that since then that great 
reservation has never been exposed to any special 
dangers. 

The Yellowstone Park had been set aside under 
peculiar conditions. The public — represented by 
those who urged the establishment of the Park — 
asked only that the territory might be withdrawn 

45Z 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

from settlement, and was satisfied with that. But 
the people at large did not look forward tO' the 
existence of the reservation without government 
for a period of twenty-two years, nor did they 
realize the changed conditions which would prevail 
so soon as railroads reached the neighborhood of 
the Park. So long as the Park was isolated and 
to be reached only after five hundred miles of 
horseback or stage ride, the region might get along 
very well without law, but as soon as the Northern 
Pacific R. R. brought to it a large public, that 
public required to be governed. 

The Boone and Crockett Club after its organiza- 
tion, acting through the personality of Geo. G. 
Vest, Arnold Hague, Wm. Hallett Phillips, W. A. 
Wadsworth, Archibald Rogers, Theodore Roose- 
velt and George Bird Grinnell, was finally success- 
ful in carrying through the law of May 7, 1894, 
and so saved the Park. 

Much more might be written about the history 
of the Park. Further details will be found in 
Colonel Anderson's paper on the Protection of the 
Yellowstone National Park in "Hunting in Many 
Lands," the second volume of the Boone and 
Crockett Club's books, and in the files of Forest 
and Stream — which was the natural mouthpiece of 
the club — from 1882 to 1894. 

452 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

At later dates, administrative services of great 
value were performed for the Park by members 
of the Club— Col. John Pitcher and Gen. S. M. B. 
Young — who at different times held the office of 
acting Superintendent. Both did much to preserve 
the game and to make travel through the Park 
easy for the public. Colonel Pitcher originated the 
plan of growing hay for the antelope, and repeat- 
edly urged the enlargement of this method of game 
preservation, which, however, never received 
approval from Washington, 



II. 

The First Forest Reserves. 

The attempt to exploit the Yellowstone National 
Park for private gain, in a way led up to the 
United States forest reservation system as it stands 
to-day. 

From the year 1882 to 1890 a few members of 
the Club gave much attention to the Park. To 
them its preservation and protection seemed a most 
Important public matter. These men were Arnold 
Hague, Wm. Hallett Phillips, G. G. Vest, Archi- 
bald Rogers, Grinnell, and later, Roosevelt. All 

453 



\The Boone and Crockett Club 

were familiar with the Park — one of them had 
been there as early as 1875 — and had seen the 
changes which had taken place and the progressive 
destruction which followed the growing number of 
visitors. All knew how the timber had been cut 
off and the game killed by the so-called syndicate, 
which in 1882 attempted to secure a monopoly of 
the Park and all the concessions connected with it. 

They had seen fires, started by careless campers, 
sweep over mountainside and valley, and had 
passed through mile after mile of burned forest, 
where charred tree trunks blackened the packs 
which brushed against them, and pine logs glowed 
and crumbled to ashes along the trail, and the 
forest floor on either side sent up clouds of acrid 
smoke from subterranean fires that ate their way 
among the dead and decayed vegetatation. Thus 
they all knew what forest fires sweeping over the 
Rocky Mountains might mean for the region 
devastated. To protect the Park, its forests and 
its game, seemed to them a vital matter. This was 
what they had set out to do; but as they saw more 
and more the dangers to which these forests were ex- 
posed, so the forests and the game of other regions 
became, in their view, more and more important. 

The most pressing dangers to the Park passed; 
the Senate, with George Graham Vest as a watch- 

454 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

ful guardian, could be trusted to prevent bad 
legislation. Then, as a natural sequence to the 
work that they had been doing, came the impulse 
to attempt to preserve western forests generally. 

Meantime, another group of men was working 
on forestry matters. These w'ere E. A. Bowers, 
B. E. Fernow and F. H. Newell — members of the 
American Forestry Association's Executive Com- 
mittee — and they were active in the Interior 
Department and in Congress. Mr. Bowers was 
Secretary of the American Forestry Association in 
1 8 89- 1 89 1, and was appointed in 1893 Assistant 
Commissioner of the General Land Office ; Fernow 
was Chief of the Division of Forestry of the 
Agricultural Department, and Newell was con- 
nected with the Geological Survey. Fernow was 
an educated forester and the father of many bills 
to conserve the forests of the public domain; 
Bowers and Newell were familiar with the West 
and with the dangers that threatened the forest 
there. Devoted to this work, they drafted a num- 
ber of bills, which they submitted to Congress, 
frequently appearing before committees, urging 
that action should be taken to protect the forests. 

In 1887 William Hallett Phillips, a member of 
the Club, had succeeded in interesting Mr. Lamar, 
Secretary of the Interior, and a number of Con- 

455 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

gressmen, in the forests, and gradually all these 
persons began to work together. At the close of 
the first Cleveland Administration, while no 
legislation had been secured looking toward forest 
protection, a number of men in Washington had 
come to feel an interest in the subject. Some of 
the bills introduced in Congress passed one House 
and some the other, and finally one, the McCrea 
bill, so-called, passed both Houses, but did not 
reach the Conference Committee. Finally on 
March 3, 1891, was passed the bill on which our 
national forest system is based, entitled "An Act 
to Repeal Timber Culture Laws and for other 
Purposes." The meat of the bill, so far as forestry 
matters are concerned, is found in its Section 24, 
which seems to have originally been introduced in 
the Senate by the late Cushman K. Davis, of Min- 
nesota, as a bill of a single section. It reads: 
"That the President of the United States may, 
from time to time, set apart and reserve in any 
State or Territory having public lands bearing 
forests, any part of the public lands, wholly or in 
part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether 
of commercial value or not, as public reservations, 
and the President shall, by public proclamation} 
declare the establishment of such reservations and 
the limits thereof." 

456 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

The Act of March 3, 1891, was the result of a 
compromise. It had come over from the House 
to the Senate as a bill of a single section to repeal 
the Timber Culture law. Senator Pettigrew, then 
a member of the Public Lands Committee, states 
that the bill was amended in the Senate Committee 
by the addition of twenty-three other sections, of 
which the one providing for the establishment of 
forest reserves, was the last. 

Gen. John W. Noble was then Secretary of the 
Interior, a man of the loftiest and broadest views 
and heartily in sympathy with the efforts to protect 
the forests. He induced President Harrison to 
sign the bill, and later, to set aside the first United 
State forest reserves, the earliest one being the 
Yellowstone Park Timber Reserve to the east and 
south of the Yellowstone Park. This was designed 
to further protect the Yellowstone Park, and Mr. 
Noble in determining the boundaries of this new 
reservation consulted Mr. Hague, whose knowl- 
edge of the matter was greater than that of any 
other man. When the Presidential proclamation 
establishing the reservation appeared, the bounv 
darles were defined In the language used in Mi* 
Hague's recommendation to Mr. Noble. 

The Boone and Crockett Club was quick to 
acknowledge Secretary Noble's first acts under the 

457 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

new law, for at a meeting of the Boone and 
Crockett Club, held April 8, 1891, it was, on 
motion of W. H. Phillips, seconded by Arnold 
Hague, 

Resolved, That this Society most heartily thank the 
President of the United States and the Honorable 
John W. Noble, Secretary of the Interior, for having 
set apart, as a forest reserve, the large tract situated 
in Wyoming, at the head waters of the Yellowstone 
and Snake Rivers, and for having set apart the 
Sequoia Park, for the preservation of the great trees 
of the Pacific Slope. 

That this Society recognizes in these actions the 
most important steps taken of recent years for the 
preservation of our forests and measures which 
confer the greatest benefits on the people of the ad- 
jacent States, 

Resolved, That copies of this resolution be sent to 
the President of the United States and the Honorable 
the Secretary of the Interior. 

By the President of the Club: The Honorable 
Theodore Roosevelt. 

That the inside history of this forestry work in 
this country should be unknown is natural enough. 
But that public and recorded acts should have been 
forgotten by those who ought to know about them 
is very surprising. In the periodical published by 
the American Forestry Association, known now as 

458 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

American Forestry, but formerly as Conservation, 
appeared In October, 1909, the statement that Mr. 
Cleveland established the first national forests. 
This brought out from Robert Underwood John- 
son, of the Century Magazine, a letter pointing 
out that, in fact, the first national forests were 
established under President Harrison's administra- 
tion, and Conservation, now American Forestry, 
made the correction, but did scant justice to the 
excellent work in forestry accomplished by Secre- 
tary Noble and President Harrison. 

The men of to-day, anxious for results, and 
absorbed in their own affairs, have quite forgotten 
those earlier men who made possible the work 
which the men of to-day are doing. Too often 
those who start a great movement and give it its 
initial impetus are lost sight of and receive not even 
the meagre justice of a mention of the part they 
played when struggling, almost alone, to bring 
about great reforms. Happily, in this case, the 
story of what General Noble had done was told 
with some fullness in the Forest and Stream of 
March 9, 1893, at the time General Noble went 
out of office. The article entitled "Secretary 
Noble's Monument" was recently reprinted in 
American Forestry, which says, with amusing 
naivete, it "seems like an original source of ancient 

459 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

history, so rapidly are we moving in this twentieth 
century." The article says: 

"We have more than once called attention to the 
broad and far-seeing policy inaugurated by Secretary 
Noble in the matter of forest preservation in the less- 
inhabited portions of the country, and it is satisfac- 
tory to see that the daily press is now giving him 
credit for the great work he has done. 

"It will be remembered that, beginning with the 
Yellowstone National Park, which was brought to- 
the notice of Mr. Noble early in his administration, 
he has given much attention to the question of our 
parks and timber reservations. To say nothing of 
the Grant, Sequoia, and Tule River parks, the 
preservation of which we owe almost entirely to Mr. 
Noble, there were set aside soon after the Act of Con- 
gress of March 3, 1891, six timber reservations, em- 
bracing an estimated area of three and a quarter 
million of acres. Of these, three lie in Colorado, one 
in New Mexico, one in Oregon, and one in Wyoming, 
adjoining the Yellowstone National Park. Besides 
these forest reserves, Mr. Noble has considered as 
well the question of preserving our marine mam- 
malian fauna of the Northwest coast, which is so 
rapidly disappearing under the constant persecution 
of white men and Indians, and has set aside an 
Alaskan island as a reservation. 

"In December last there was established in South- 
ern California a timber reservation near Los Angeles, 
including nearly 1,000,000 acres. This will be known 

460 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

as the San Gabriel Timber Land Reservation, and in- 
cludes all the mountains from Salidad Canon, where 
the Southern Pacific Railroad passes through the 
mountains, eastward to the Cajon Pass. A little later 
another reservation of about 800,000 acres was an- 
nounced, to be called the San Bernardino Mountain 
Forest Reservation. This adjoins the San Gabriel 
reserve and runs eastward from the Cajon Pass to 
San Gorgonio. Finally, the 14th of February, the 
Sierra Reservation was set aside. This comprises 
over 4,000,000 acres and takes in the high Sierra, ex- 
tending southward from the line of the Yosemite 
National Park to the seventh standard parallel south. 
It includes the existing Grant, Sequoia, Tule River, 
and Mount Whitney reservations, and also the 
wonderful Kings River Cafion, which has been de- 
scribed by Mr. John Muir in the Century Magazine. 

"This country is one of surpassingly beautiful 
scenery and contains some of the highest peaks to 
be found within the limits of the United States. It 
is of especial interest for its giant forests, many of 
which are yet untouched, and which contain the great 
sequoias, together with many other species of Pacific 
forest trees of remarkable interest and beauty. Be- 
sides this, the region is interesting as containing a 
considerable amount of game, and, on the high moun- 
tains, species of birds and mammals which are not 
found elsewhere in California. 

"Far more important, however, to the country, 
from an economic point of view, is the preservation 
of the water supply, which will be insured by the 
setting aside of these reservations. Throughout mos' 

461 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

of the Western country the question of water for 
irrigating purposes is the most vital one met by the 
settler, but it is only within a very few years that the 
slightest regard has been had to the farmer's needs." 

Later in the administration other reservations 
were set aside. 

The good work accomplished by Secretary 
Noble in persuading Mr. Harrison to set aside 
forest reservations was continued by his successor. 
Mr. Cleveland was greatly interested in the forests, 
as was also Secretary Hoke Smith. During the 
Cleveland Administration, Gifford Pinchot re- 
turned from his studies in Europe, and in 1896 was 
appointed by Secretary Hoke Smith special agent 
to look after matters pertaining to the forest re- 
serves. In his investigations of these matters he 
traveled over much of the Western country and 
thoroughly familiarized himself with the forests of 
the Rocky Mountains and of the Pacific Slope. 
He learned also that the forest reserves as already 
set aside were very unpopular in the Western 
country, because the citizens of the West believed 
that in some way the Government was endeavoring 
to take from them certain rights that they pos- 
sessed. The Western newspapers were full of 
complaints, and a bitter feeling prevailed. 

One of the greatest services that Mr. Pinchot 
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The Boone and Crockett Club 

has performed for forestry — and his services have 
been great — was that he made it his business to go 
into newspaper offices all over the land when this 
was practicable, and to patiently and laboriously 
explain to editors what forestry meant and why 
for any locality the preservation of the forests of 
that section is beneficial to that section, and instead 
of being a bad thing, is a good thing for its public. 
Mr. Pinchot was later appointed United States 
Forester, and soon after began the organization 
of a Bureau of Forestry as part of the Land Office 
of the Interior Department. What he has since 
done for conservation Is still fresh In the public 
mind. 

III. 

New York Zoological Society. 

The establishment of the New York Zoological 
Society, which manages the New York Zoological 
Park and the New York Aquarium, was the work 
of the Boone and Crockett Club. In the Club's 
volume, "Hunting In Many Lands," the history of 
this society has been told by Mr. Grant, who was 
the moving spirit In Its organization. Briefly, it is 
as follows: 

463 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

Beginning about the year 1880, a number of 
citizens of New York tried, with no apparent 
success, to arouse public interest in the establish- 
ment of a zoological garden which should be a 
credit to the chief city of the United States. There 
had been much talk on the subject, and many 
articles published, but nothing definite was done 
until 1890, when a bill was introduced into the 
Legislature at Albany, providing for the establish- 
men of a zoological park on city lands located 
north of 155th Street. One provision of the bill 
authorized the New York Board of Park Com- 
missioners to turn over to this zoological garden 
the existing menagerie of the Central Park. This 
clause provoked violent opposition from certain 
city representatives, and the bill was defeated. 

At the annual meeting of the Club, held January 
16, 1895, the President, Theodore Roosevelt, 
appointed a committee, of which Madison Grant 
was chairman, to look after legislation in New 
York State in the interest of game preservation. 
One object for which this committee proposed to 
work was to found in New York City a zoological 
society which should conduct a zoological park on 
new lines, based on those principles of game preser- 
vation for which the Boone and Crockett Club 
stands. 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

W. W. Niles, Jr., was then a member of the 
Assembly, representing a district above the Harlem 
River, where it seemed probable that the proposed 
park would be located. The committee took the 
old bill to Mr. Niles, who agreed to push it on 
condition that the Boone and Crockett Club would 
organize the society, and that some of its members 
should appear as incorporators. The bill was 
amended in accordance with his suggestions, and 
Madison Grant and C. Grant La Farge were 
included among the Incorporators. The bill, 
modified so as to doi away with most of the oppo- 
sition, passed the Assembly, and the New York 
Zoological Society was organized May 7, 1895. 
On Its first board of directors were nine members 
of the Boone and Crockett Club, including two 
vice-presidents and both the secretaries. 

The work of the Society began at once. After 
a year of Investigation, the southern end of Bronx 
Park was chosen for the location of the Zoological 
Park, and In March, 1897, this area of two hun- 
dred and sixty-one acres was granted by the city 
to the New York Zoological Society. Within a 
year and a half the work of organizing and 
improving the Park had so far advanced that it 
was opened to the public. Its decennial celebration 
was held In 1909. In the year 1902 the New 

465 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

York Zoological Society also took over from the 
city the New York Aquarium, and has since 
managed it. It has brought order out of chaos, 
has vastly improved the methods of exhibiting 
the collections, and more than doubled their size, 
besides so reorganizing the plant that they are 
kept in good health and do not require to be 
constantly renewed. The popularity of these two 
institutions is shown by the fact that during the 
year 1909 more than five and one-half millions of 
people visited the New York Zoological Park and 
the New York Aquarium. 

Up to the present time the work of the Zoolog- 
ical Society has been chiefly in the direction of 
organization. It has established a park; it has 
provided collections; it has furnished buildings in 
which to house these collections. The time is 
coming — nay is even now at hand — when research 
work of a high order will be carried on under its 
auspices. Such work has already been begun, as is 
shown by various papers published by the directors 
of the two institutions and by the curators of their 
various departments. 

In all this work the Boone and Crockett Club 
has had a chief part. All the chief officers of the 
Zoological Society and a number of the Board of 
Managers are members of the Club, as are also 

466 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

some members of the Scientific Council. The New 
York Zoological Society has been and is a child of 
the Boone and Crockett Club. 



IV. 

Water-Killing Deer. 

Long before the Club's establishment, efforts 
had been made to put an end to the barbarous 
practice of killing deer in the water in the 
Adirondacks. It was then the custom to put 
hounds upon the track of deer and drive them until 
they took to the lakes in the effort to throw off 
the hounds. When this took place, men rowed up 
to the animal and blew out its brains or cut its 
throat with a knife, or beat it to death with a club. 
This method of killing was utterly condemned by 
the Boone and Crockett Club, whose constitution, 
in its fifth article declares, that "the term *fair 
chase' shall not be held to include killing bear, 
wolf or cougar in traps, nor 'fire hunting,' nor 
'crusting' moose, elk or deer in deep snow, nor 
killing game from a boat while it is swimming in 
the water." Article X declares that the killing of 
game while it is swimming in the water Is an 

467 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

"offense" for which a member may be suspended 
or expelled from the Club. 

Forest and Stream had for some years carried 
on a bitter war against water-killing deer, and 
on this account had become very unpopular in the 
Adirondacks. Bills introduced by the late Gen. 
Newton Martin Curtiss had many times been 
defeated, although one of them had been passed 
and for a short time became law. There was a 
constant struggle between the two parties in the 
Legislature, one desiring to put an end to the 
practice, the other to have it continued. 

Early in 1897 bills were introduced, one by 
Hon. Wm. Gary Sanger, a member of the Club, 
forbidding the use of dogs for hunting deer at 
any time, and also forbidding owners of dogs to 
permit them to run at large. This bill was intro- 
duced at Mr. Grant's request, but was subsequently 
withdrawn in favor of the Ives bill, introduced a 
week later, January 20, which forbade fire-hunting, 
the use of traps or salt licks, the use of dogs in 
hunting deer, or permitting such dogs to run at 
large. This bill, earnestly pressed by the Boone 
and Crockett Club, finally became a law, and the 
hounding, and so the water-killing of deer ended. 



468 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

V. 

Alaska Game Law. 

After the discovery of gold in Alaska and the 
rush thither of a horde of miners and other settlers, 
an enormous destruction of large game animals 
took place in that then unknown region, and in 
certain districts the game was exterminated. Some 
forms of life — caribou and bears — seemed to be 
threatened with extinction. It was apparent that 
game laws were needed here — that a foundation 
must be laid for the protection of these large 
animals over the one great area belonging to the 
United States, which is still unsettled. On the 
other hand, it was obvious that game was needed 
for food for the miners, while the natives 
depended for subsistence almost wholly on the 
wild animals. 

Early in the year 1902, two members of the 
Club, John F. Lacey, of Iowa, and Madison 
Grant, of New York, prepared a bill to protect the 
game of Alaska, which Mr. Lacey introduced in 
the House of Representatives. It prohibited the 
killing of wild game animals, or wild birds, for 
purposes of shipment from the District of Alaska. 
Game animals and birds were defined. Fur- 

469 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

bearing animals, such as fur seal, sea otter and 
all fur-bearing animals, save bears and sea lions, 
were excepted from the provisions of the act so far 
as native Indians or Eskimo were concerned; but 
natives were not permitted to sell meat or heads. 
Seasons were established for killing animals and 
birds, and the Secretary of Agriculture was 
authorized, whenever it should be necessary for 
the preservation of game birds or animals, to make 
and publish rules and regulations which should 
modify the close seasons established in the bill, or 
further restrict the killing or entirely prohibit it 
for five years. The selling of hides, skins or heads, 
or their shipment, was forbidden, except for 
scientific purposes. The bill became law. 

When this Act was passed it was reported that 
cold storage warehouses were to be built at Skag- 
way and Valdez, where all the meat that could be 
obtained should be frozen and held indefinitely. 
One purpose of the bill was to cut this off, but its 
chief object was to prevent an export trade by 
taxidermists in the heads of the giant moose and 
the white sheep, which were then greatly sought 
after. It was also regarded as highly desirable 
to establish the principle that a game law was 
needed in the territory. 

In March, 1904, a bill was introduced in Con- 
470 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

gfess looking to the repeal or modification of the 
Alaska game laws. This repeal, engineered by 
Senator Dillingham on his return from a trip to 
Alaska, brought on an earnest struggle between 
the Club on the one hand and Senator Dillingham 
on the other. After much discussion and the pro- 
duction of not a little testimony by both sides, 
Senator DiUingham withdrew the bill. 

The present Alaska game law, drafted by Hon. 
W. E. Humphrey in 1908, is a modification of 
the old law. 

It is obvious that a game law for Alaska, to be 
effective, must have the moral support of the best 
people in the territory. Over a region, much of 
which is still untrodden and which is traversed by 
men who of necessity must live largely on the 
country, a law that forbids men to kill food for 
themselves while traveling, cannot have popular 
support. The vastness of Alaska, the conditions 
of a region yet unsettled, and the limited number 
of oflicials who can be called on to enforce the law, 
must make any statute that does not appeal to the 
intelligence of the settlers a mere dead letter. 

The present law is quite ineffective, and its pro- 
visions are enforced only against the exporting 
sportsmen and taxidermists. Against these it 
works well. 

471 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

The Canadian government in the Yukon Terri- 
tory has good laws, which have popular support. 
This is largely because they have an efficient force 
of officers, the Northwest Mounted Police, and 
residents of Canada recognize the fact that when 
these policemen set out to arrest a man they do not 
stop until they have got him. In Alaska the game 
laws are supposed to be enforced by the United 
States Marshals, most of whom feel no Interest 
whatever in the game laws, and will not start out 
to look for a man unless guaranteed expenses of 
ten dollars a day. The Canadian government 
endeavors to make It easy for Its citizens to supply 
themselves with meat, but when the killing reaches 
undue proportions, or the game leaves a certain 
district where It has been abundant, hunting In that 
district is stopped for a time. Their laws give 
power to the police to do many things, but they 
also hold the police strictly accountable for their 
actions. In this way they get from them excellent 
service. The United States Marshals, on the other 
hand, are not held to strict responslblllt}', and exert 
themselves only In situations where public opinion 
insists that they do so. 

If Congress will set aside as a game refuge some 
considerable tract of Alaska land where no mines 
are known to exist, and in a territory suitable for 

472 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

the winter and summer ranges of moose, caribou 
and wild sheep, much may be done to preserve 
Alaska game. It seems clear that the great brown 
bears of the Alaska Peninsula, of the coast to the 
southward, and of the islands, must take their 
chance of survival. It will probably be long 
before they will be exterminated, and before then 
some means may be devised for setting aside a 
reservation for them. 



VI. 

Game Refuges and Collateral Movements. 

The principle of game refuges — the declaration 
that a necessary step in the work of game protec- 
tion is the e-stablishment of areas in which animals 
may not be pursued or hunted — was first set forth 
by the Chib soon after the publication of the 
"American Big Game Hunting," which appeared 
1893. In that volume it was said: 

"The forest reserves are absolntely unprotected. 
Although set aside by presidential proclamation 
they are without government and without guards. 
Timber thieves may still strip the mountain sides 
of the growing trees, and poachers may still kill the 
game without fear of punishment. 

473 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

"This should not be so. If it was worth while 
to estabhsh these reserves, it is worth while to pro- 
tect them. * * * The timber and the game ought 
to be made the absolute property of the govern- 
ment, and it should be constituted a punishable of- 
fense to appropriate such property within the limits 
of the reservation. * * * 

"The national parks and forest reserves * * * 
by proper protection may become great game pre- 
serves. * * * In these reservations is to be found 
to-day every species of large game known to the 
United States, and the proper protection of the 
reservations means perpetuating in full supply of all 
these indigenous mammals." 



The abuses here alluded to were in part 
remedied by the Act of May y, 1894, but only so 
far as concerned the Yellowstone Park. To 
protect the Yellowstone Park was well for the 
Yellowstone and the surrounding country, but did 
nothing for the rest of the country. The Club 
urged then, and still insists, that portions of the 
forest reserves shall be set aside as game refuges 
where the killing of wild animals shall be abso- 
lutely forbidden. Constant efforts have been made 
to emphasize this, and long before he took the 
Presidential chair, Theodore Roosevelt spoke in 
its behalf before many associations. 

474 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

In 1 90 1, speaking of the forest reserves, he 
said: 

"Some at least of the forest reservations should 
afford perpetual protection to the native fauna and 
flora, for havens of refuge to our rapidly diminish- 
ing wild animals of the larger kinds, and free camp- 
ing grounds for the ever increasing numbers of men 
and women who have learned to find rest, health 
and recreation in the splendid forest and flower- 
clad meadows of our mountains. The forest re- 
serves should be set apart forever for the use and 
benefit of our people as a whole, and not sacrificed 
to the short-sighted greed of a few." 

In February, 1902, John F. Lacey, of Iowa, 
introduced in the House of Representatives a bill 
to transfer the administration of the forest reserves 
to the Department of Agriculture. Its second sec- 
tion authorized the President to set apart by execu- 
tive order as fish and game preserves, such forest 
reserves, or parts of them, as he might deem best. 
It authorized the Secretary of the Department in 
charge of which the forest reserves should be, to 
make rules and regulations providing for the pro- 
tection of the forests, the fish and the game, and to 
establish methods of trial, and fix:ed penalties, in 
case of conviction of the infraction of any regula- 
tions so established. The Committee on Public 
Lands, to which the bill had been referred, gave 

475 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

considerable attention to the subject of game pro- 
tection, and submitted an opinion from the 
Attorney-General to the general effect that it was 
possible by legislation lawfully to protect the game 
and fish of the reserves. The i)ill failed to pass. 

In the year 1903 Alden Sampson, then Secretary 
of the Boone and Crockett Club, was appointed 
game reserve expert by the Secretary of Agricul- 
ture, and, working under the Biological Survey, 
spent much time on the Pacific Coast studying 
conditions there. In addition to his investigations, 
Mr. Sampson performed good work for game 
preservation, lecturing and talking in its behalf. 
In "American Big (iame in Its I iaunts," the fourth 
volume of the Boone and Crockett Club books, he 
had an interesting paper on the creating of game 
preserves, which deals very fully with his work on 
the Pacific Coast, points out the necessity of game 
refuges there, and shows how effectively such 
refuges would protect the game. 

No argument is required to demonstrate this. 
Tn the Yellowstone Park we have a perpetual 
object lesson. 1 lere the elk exist in such abundance 
that in severe winters they starve to death, while 
when they leave certain sections of that Park and 
move down into Jackson's 1 lole, in their search for 
food they destroy the fences, hay and other prop- 

476 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

erty of the farmers. Large refuges in one or more 
of the forest reserves at such altitudes that the elk 
would not be forced to leave them at the approach 
of winter, as they do in the Yellowstone J*ark, 
would soon be filled, and the elk would scatter out 
among the mountains, for the benefit of the 
adjacent public. 

In the second session of the Fifty-seventh Con- 
gress a bill providing for the establishment of 
game refuges by the President in public forest 
reserves, not exceeding one in. each State or Terri- 
tory, passed the Senate February 7, 1903, and. 
went to the House, where it failed. 'I he bill 
provided that the killing or capturing of game 
animals, birds and fish upon the lands and in the 
waters of the United States within the limits of 
said area shall be unlawful, and that any one 
violating the provisions of the Act should, on con- 
viction, be fined not more than a thousand dollars 
or imprisoned for a period not exceeding one year, 
or suffer both fine and imprisonment, at the dis- 
cretion of the court. The purpose of the Act was 
declared to be to protect from trespass the public 
lands of the United States, the game animals, birds 
and fish thereon, and not to interfere with the 
local game laws as affecting private State or 
Territorial lands. 

477 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

Early in 1894, the Forest and Stream recom- 
mended that sportsmen who really desired the 
preservation of our game should adopt as a plank 
in their platform — or as an article of faith in their 
creed — the declaration that "The sale of game 
must be forbidden at all times." This, to the 
general public when first announced, seemed an 
entirely novel and Impractical idea, and was gener- 
ally laughed at. The Boone and Crockett Club, 
however, instantly recognized the importance of 
the principle, and led the way in teaching thinking 
sportsmen to see that the most certain and effective 
method to end market hunting was to cut off the 
market in which professional hunters sold their 
game. 

The principle announced sixteen years ago has 
in an astonishingly short time found general accept- 
ance throughout North America, and in one form 
or another is now embodied in the statutes of most 
of the North American States, Provinces and Ter- 
ritories. Its importance has been recognized on 
other continents and the principle has been put in 
practice by the British in Africa. It is one of the 
most far-reaching steps ever taken to protect 
indigenous fauna. 

In the year 1904, Hon. George Shiras, 3d, a 
member of the Club, introduced into the House of 

478 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

Representatives a bill whose purpose was to put 
migratory birds and fish under control of the 
United States Government. The protection of 
game and fish has been under the care of the local 
authorities of the different States, and the effort to 
transfer them from the charge of the States to the 
charge of the Federal Government, though by 
most people acknowledged to be desirable, was at 
first believed to be unconstitutional. The matter 
was discussed by a number of lawyers, among 
whom were Mr. Shiras, Judge D. C. Beaman and 
Hon. H. L. Stimson. These three gentlemen took 
three diverse views of the matter. 

In 1906, Mr. Shiras wrote a long brief on the 
subject, which was printed in that year in Forest 
and Stream. It shows much research. The Shiras 
bill never came to a vote, and in fact was intro*- 
duced only for the purpose of bringing the matter 
before the public. 

The principle of game refuges should have the 
broadest application. Major Wadsworth advo- 
cates encouraging the farmers everywhere to set 
aside tracts in which neither owners nor any others 
except the designated killers of vermin may trap or 
shoot. Refuges should be established everywhere 
for mammals and for birds. It is the most import- 
ant thing for which sportsmen should now work. 

479 



The Boone and Crockett Club 
VII. 

Glacier National Park. 

In the early days of the Club's history, one of 
its members was a frequent visitor to a section in 
Montana, now well known. This is the St. Mary's 
country, whose great landmark. Chief Mountain, 
is so impressive. The region possessed peculiar 
interest for the hunting it offered, for mountain 
climbing, or for the study of the Indians, whose 
country it was. In all America there is probably 
no such beautiful land, which is at the same time 
easily accessible, and which has been so great a 
game country. In the last years of the last century 
Mr. Grinnell described this section in an article 
entitled the "Crown of the Continent," and 
recommended that It be set apart as a national 
park. Later, Senator Thomas H. Carter, of Mon- 
tana, a member of the Club, introduced in Con- 
gress a bill to establish the Glacier National Park. 
The citizens of Montana were heartily In favor of 
this measure, as were the scientific men, travelers 
and hunters, who had visited the region. The bill 
more than once passed the Senate, and early in 
19 lo passed both Houses of Congress, and on 
May 12 was approved by the President and became 

480 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

law. This Park the country owes to the Boone 
and Crockett Club, whose members discovered the 
region, suggested its being set aside, caused the 
bill to be introduced in Congress and awakened 
interest in it all over the country. 



VIII. 

Canada's Rocky Mountain Reservations. 

The setting aside of the Glacier National Park 
in Montana, just south of the Boundary Line, calls 
renewed attention to the quiet work done in 
Canada within the past few years in establishing 
parks and reservations which shall protect the 
natural resources of that broad region. In 1895 
the Waterton Lakes Forest Park, situated on the 
International Boundary Line, about thirty miles 
southwest of Cardston, Alberta, and adjoining the 
Glacier National Park, was set aside by order 
in Council. Subsequently it was included as one 
of the Forest Reserves in the Forest Reserve Act 
of 1906, and later it was decided to administer it 
as one of the series of Dominion Parks. The 
regulations under which It Is administered provide 
for the protection of game, and limit the fishing 

481 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

in respect to manner of capture, quantity, size and 
season. 

The Canadian Government has also' reserved 
from sale and settlement, in the interest of the 
conservation of forests, and the protection of the 
water supply, the rougher forested portions of the 
eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. This 
reservation comprises approximately 14,400 square 
miles. It begins at the International Boundary and 
runs about 410 miles in a northwesterly direction, 
following the crest of the main range of the Rocky 
Mountains, which forms the boundary between 
the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia 
to the intersection of that line with the 120th 
meridian. The strip of land is irregular in width, 
from ten to thirty miles wide up to the 51st par- 
allel, thence widening to a width of from thirty to 
fifty miles up to the 54th parallel, where it tapers 
to the 1 20th meridian. 

In the tract described are situated the Waterton 
Lakes Park, the Rocky Mountains Park, with an 
area of 4500 square miles, and the Jaspar Forest 
Park with an area of 5000 square miles. In these 
parks, hunting and shooting are forbidden, but 
fishing may be done under adequate regulation. 
These parks, therefore, are game refuges, in which 
for all times those animals indigenous to them — 

482 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

and such others as may be successfully introduced 
— may live undisturbed. In the portions of the 
great reserve not already set aside as parks, 
hunting and trapping will be permitted under 
restrictions. 

Here is a vast area, giving a territory of ap- 
proximately sixteen thousand square miles of 
mountainous territory, brought under special ad- 
ministration by two neighboring countries. This 
action will secure not only the protection of the 
forests, and the water supply, but also the fish, 
game and bird life, and will preserve for the 
enjoyment of this and future generations the un- 
touched beauty and charm of the everlasting hills. 

A large herd of buffalo, purchased in western 
Montana, was transported to Canada and set free 
in a large park near Edmonton, Alberta, where 
they are doing extremely well, and promise great 
increase. 

For much of this all English-speaking residents 
of North America have to thank Hon. Frank 
Oliver, the Dominion Minister of the Interior, a 
member of the Boone and Crockett Club, whose 
keen intelligence looks far enough into the future 
to enable him to provide for changes which many 
of us are as yet unable to foresee. 



483 



[The Boone and Crockett Club 
IX. 

Examples of Local Work. 

Besides these larger matters, which have a gen- 
eral interest for the whole country, different mem- 
bers of the Club, at various times and in various 
places, have performed excellent work, whether 
by enforcing existing laws, moulding public opin- 
ion in one direction or another, or influencing 
individuals to act in behalf of wise game protec- 
tion. Two examples of such work may be cited, 
one many years ago in Wyoming Territory, an- 
other much more recent, in New York. 

In the year 1888, three members of the Boone 
and Crockett Club — Col. Wm. D. Pickett, Archi- 
bald Rogers and T. Paton — assisted by Otto 
Franc, a local Justice of the Peace, undertook the 
first enforcement in the Territory of Wyoming of 
the laws for the protection of game. Jim Gehman 
was appointed game constable October i, 1888, 
and it was understood that for the district about 
Grey Bull River the existing game laws were tO' be 
enforced. 

The mere fact that a game constable had been 
appointed caused a stampede from the region by 
all the head, hide and meat hunters, and in this 

484 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

way much game, chiefly elk, sheep and antelope, 
was saved from destruction. Many hunting 
parties coming in from Montana were turned back 
and several arrests were made, one man being 
followed over one hundred miles before he was 
caught. 

The hostility and odium incurred by the pro^ 
jectors of this movement to enforce the game laws 
was very great, and many threats were made of 
what would be done to them ; but in the picturesque 
language of the time and country neither Pickett, 
Rogers nor Paton "scared worth a cent." Jim 
Gehman had already shot his man in self-defense, 
and had demonstrated that he was not to be trifled 
with. 

An amusing incident of this working toward 
protection occurred at this time, when a prominent 
member of the Boone and Crockett Club, unac- 
quainted with the law, came Into the mountains to 
hunt, and fell into Jim's hands. He was obliged 
to turn back. 

The good work went on during the following 
year, 1889, and much less feeling was shown by 
the residents, as they began to realize that what 
was being done was for the best interests of all. 

In September, 1888, Colonel Pickett had been 
elected to the Legislature of Wyoming, and took 

48s 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

his seat January, 1890. He was appointed chair- 
man of the Game and Fisheries Committee of the 
House, which passed a very sensible set of game 
laws, March 14, 1890. 

In this way a few resolute men, members of the 
Boone and Crockett Club, accomplished In the 
then unsettled region of northwestern Wyoming, 
work which preserved from extinction all the 
larger game animals until the time came when the 
tide of settlement swept over the whole country. 

When this tide of settlement came, the herds of 
elk, mountain sheep and antelope were In part 
pushed higher up into the mountains and finally 
over their crest, and drifted west. In and about 
the Yellowstone National Park, the descendants 
of these animals may be found to-day. 

Good local work was done by Major W. Austin 
Wadsworth, the President of the Club, who- was 
appointed President of the New York Forest, Fish 
and Game Commission by Governor Roosevelt In 
1900. No one knew better than Major Wads- 
worth the needs of New York State as tO' the pro- 
tection of forests, fish and game, and no' man 
occupying the position of President of the Game 
Commission ever worked harder to accomplish 
results. His labors were devoted especially to the 
protection of the forests and to efforts to secure 

486 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

legislation looking toward the purification of the 
waters of the State. The economic importance of 
this question of pure water, long agO' recognized 
by a few, is, curiously enough, as yet of no interest 
whatever to the general public, though on it depend 
vast economic interests — the inland fisheries of the 
State — and, still more vital, the public health. 

In the Sixth Annual Report of the Forest, Fish 
and Game Commission, Major Wadsworth recom- 
mended that certain measures be taken tO' prevent 
forest fires; that the killing of does be prohibited 
at all times ; and that spring duck shooting be for- 
bidden. The Legislature's attention was especially 
called to the difficulty of enforcing the law in 
regard to the pollution of streams. "This Is a 
matter of vital importance and not to be dismissed 
as affecting only the lives of some fishes, the 
pleasures of some anglers or the dividends of some 
pulp mills. We are a water-drinking people, and 
we are allowing every brook to be defiled. Nature 
provides that they should be kept pure. * * * 
It is not necessary to destroy or hamper any in- 
dustry in order to prevent the pollution of water- 
courses. What is really needed is to check the 
orlmlnal selfishness of those who would rather 
poison their fellow citizens with their offal than to 
spend a few dollars to take care of it." 

487 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

These were strong words, and might have been 
expected to move the Legislature — or if not the 
Legislature, then the public — out of its attitude of 
stolid indifference, but nothing of the sort took, 
place. No serious attempt has been made to pro- 
vide for the purification of our streams, and the 
old struggle, carried on by the few who are inter- 
ested in this vital matter to arouse the many who 
as yet care not one whit about it, goes on and will 
go on. 

No details can be given concerning the note- 
worthy services performed by many members of 
the Club in the fields of science, exploration and 
conservation; but some distinguished names may 
be mentioned. The list of scientific men Includes 
J. A. Allen, Arthur Erwin Brown, D. G. Elliott, 
Arnold Hague, Clarence King, Henry S. Prichett, 
C. H. Merriam, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Chas. H. 
Townsend and Chas. D. Walcott. Among trav- 
elers and explorers are Col. D. L. Bralnard, Wm. 
Astor Chanler, W. T. Hornaday, A. P. Low, 
Warburton Pike, W. W. Rockhlll, Theodore 
Roosevelt, F. C. Selous, A. Donaldson Smith, 
Wm. Lord Smith, Chas. Sheldon and Wm. Fltz- 
hugh Whitehouse. Men In high government 
authority who have performed notable services for 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

game and forest preservation, and conservation 
generally, are Gen. John W. Noble, formerly Sec- 
retary of the Interior; Hon. Frank Oliver, Min- 
ister of the Interior for the Dominion of Canada ; 
Senator T. H. Carter, Hon. John F. Lacey and 
Gifford Pinchot, formerly United States Forester 
All these men have served well their fellow men. 
Within the last twenty years the Boone and 
Crockett Club has been consulted and has worked 
for or against legislation in various parts of North 
America. From all over the land persons inter- 
ested in game protection bring to it their problems 
and ask its advice. In addition tO' this, the officers 
of the Club have often been consulted as to condi- 
tions in foreign countries, and the best forms for 
game laws. Mr. Grant is responsible for portions 
of the present game laws of Newfoundland, and it 
was he who suggested that a strip of protected land 
should be set aside on either side of the New- 
foundland Railway, on which the migrating cari- 
bou might not be killed or pursued. Out of the 
setting aside of this strip grew the laying off of a 
similar strip along the Uganda Railway in British 
East Africa, which has resulted in an extraordinary 
abundance of game there. Suggestions and advice 
have been given with regard to public parks and 
game reserves in British Columbia, and correspon- 

489 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

dence had with the Governor-General of Canada 
in recent years, was followed by action looking 
toward the protection of the wood buffalo and the 
musk-ox. 

It thus appears that since its establishment in 
1888, the purposes and activities of the Boone and 
Crockett Club have wholly changed — it might be 
said, have been reversed. Beginning as a club of 
riflemen, apparently concerned only with their own 
recreation, it early discovered that more important 
work was to be done in the field of protection than 
in that of destruction. No sooner had the Club 
been organized and begun to consider the subjects 
which most interested it, than it became apparent 
that on all hands the selfishness of individuals was 
rapidly doing away with all the natural things of 
this country, and that a halt must be called. The 
Club was fortunate in numbering among its mem- 
bers certain men, who had been active in various 
fields, and when a subject came up that required 
investigation, some member of the Club was 
usually found who either knew the subject or knew 
where to go for information concerning it. 

A detailed history of the Club during the past 
twenty years would be of much interest and would 
show far better than can a reminiscent paper, such 

450 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

as this, its usefulness and Its influence. It has not 
been the Club's practice to announce its purposes, 
nor to glory in what it has accomplished, but rather 
to move steadfastly forward, striving constantly to 
do whatever fell within Its province which would 
tend to promote the country's welfare. Some mem- 
bers not closely in touch with the Club's active 
work are not well informed as to what it has done, 
and It Is In a measure for the purpose of acquaint- 
ing such members with facts of Its accomplish- 
ments that this paper has been prepared. 

It would have been natural and easy for the Club 
to have confined its activities to meeting at intervals 
to dine, and discuss abuses and dangers, and to pass 
stirring resolutions, about them. Instead of this, 
it has had a small body of intelligent men, scat- 
tered all over the country, working individually 
and constantly In behalf of things once laughed at 
or unknown, but now as familiar to the public mind 
as household words. The results accomplished by 
the Boone and Crockett Club bear testimony to the 
alertness and energy of its members, and to the 
success of the methods which they have pursued. 



491 



OFFICERS 
OF THE BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB 

1913- 

President. 
William Austin Wadsworth Geneseo, N. Y. 

Vice-Presidents. 

Arnold Hague Washington, D. C. 

Walter B. Devereux Colorado 

Archibald Rogers New York 

George Bird Grinnell New York 

Madison Grant New York 

Secretary. 
Henry G. Gray 49 Wall St., New York 

Treasurer. 
W. Redmond Cross 33 Pine St. New York 

E.vecutive Committee. 
William Austin Wadsworth, ex-oMcio, Chairman. 
Henry G. Gray, ex-oMcio. 
W. Redmond Cross, ex-oMcio. 



Lewis Rutherfurd Morris, 
Edward Hubert Litchfield, 

Charles Sheldon, 
William K. Draper, 

George L. Harrison, Jr., 
Winthrop Chanler, 

492 



To serve until 1914. 
To serve until 1915. 
To serve until 1916. 



COMMITTEES 
Game Preservation Committee. 

Charles Sheldon, Chairman. 
J. Walter Wood, Charles H. Townsend, 

W. Redmond Cross, E. W. Nelson, 

Edward Hubert Litchfield, Alexander Lambert. 

George Bird Grinnell, ] ^4^^^ Members. 
Lewis Rutherfurd Morris,^ 

Finance Committee. 

Henry G. Gray, Chairman New York, N. Y. 

Lewis Rutherfurd Morris New York, N. Y. 

Daniel Moreau Barringer Philadelphia, Pa. 

Lyman M. Bass Buffalo, N. Y. 

George L. Harrison, Jr Philadelphia, Pa. 

Henry Clay Pierce New York, N. Y. 

William B. Bogert Chicago, 111. 

Percy C. Madeira Philadelphia, Pa. 

William Astor Chanler New York, N. Y. 

George Shiras, 3d Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Robert Parkman Blake Boston, Mass. 

W. B. Mershon Saginaw, Mich. 

James Hathaway Kidder New York, N. Y. 

Frank C. Crocker Hill City, S. D. 

George H. Gould Santa Barbara, Cal. 

Lewis S. Thompson Red Bank, N. J. 

House Committee. 

Chas. Stewart Davison, Chairman. 

Henry G. Gray, Alexander Lambert. 

Editorial Committee. 
George Bird Grinnell. . .238 East 15th St., New York 

Theodore Roosevelt Oyster Bay, N. Y. 

493 



REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE 

The Nominating Committee respectfully reports that 
it has given careful consideration to the general situa- 
tion in relation to nominations and the various classes 
of membership of the club, and that it has deemed it 
desirable in connection with making the regular nomi- 
nations for executive officers to make certain further 
recommendations to the club concerning Honorary- 
Membership. It is aware that Honorary members are 
elected by the Executive Committee and not by the 
club at large; but is nevertheless of opinion that the 
Executive Committee would prefer to learn the views 
of the club before taking action along the line which 
it desires to suggest. It therefore takes this method 
of obtaining such an expression of view. It calls to 
the club's attention that there have been four Honor- 
ary members, all now deceased: Judge Caton, Mr. 
Parkman and Generals Sheridan and Sherman. Mean- 
while conditions here in the United States in relation 
to the shooting of large game have materially altered 
during the past fifteen to twenty years and will change 
in the future even more rapidly. Sportsmen must 
necessarily go further afield, and large game shoot- 
ing as also the protection of large game, is year by 
year assuming more and more of an international 
aspect. Under these circumstances the committee 

494 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

have given consideration to the position taken by the 
Shikar Club and to the objects of that club as set 
forth in its annual. The committee calls the attention 
of the Boone and Crockett Club to the following ex- 
pression of those objects ; that is, the recital by the 
Shikar Club of its cordial sympathy with the objects 
of its sister society known as "The Fauna" with which 
it has many members in common, to wit: the preser- 
vation of wild species within the British Empire and 
the bringing home, as they say, to their rulers of their 
responsibility in the matter. 

The Shikar Club continuing, recites among its ob- 
jects : the development of the social side of sport ; the 
bringing together of camp-fire friends, the old-time 
hunter and the young aspirant; the maintaining of a 
standard of sportsmanship ; the inculcating of a love 
of forest, mountain and desert, and of the knowledge 
of the habits of animals ; the encouraging of the stren- 
uous pursuit of a wary and dangerous quarry; the 
development of the instinct of a well-devised approach 
and of the patient retrieving of wounded animals. 
These points, as we all know, have occupied more and 
more of the attention of this club also. All these ob- 
jects are similar to those of the Boone and Crockett 
Club. Indeed, it is not too much to say that this 
club served as a model for the Shikar Club. In one 
matter, however, the Shikar Club has recognized an 
opportunity which this club has neglected; that is, in 
electing to Honorary Membership distinguished for- 
eign sportsmen. Among them three of our own mem- 
bership figure — our Secretary, Mr. Grant, our Asso- 

495 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

ciate Member, Dr. Hornaday, and our first President, 
Mr. Roosevelt. Austria, France, Russia, Bohemia and 
Roumania are also represented. 

The Nominating Committee, therefore, recommends 
that while not limiting the Honorary Membership to 
foreigners, the Executive Committee should elect to 
such membership a certain number of others than 
Americans, distinguished in other parts of the world 
for adherence to the objects which this club was 
founded to attain; to the end that there shall arise 
more of an interchange of view upon, and mutual 
assistance in subjects of common interest; that such 
of our members as may pursue sport with the rifle 
in other countries may be brought more closely in 
relation with foreign sportsmen, and that the general 
interest, without which the particular interest cannot 
be subserved, may be added. 

The Nominating Committee, therefore, requests the 
club to recommend to the Executive Committee that 
certain elections be made to Honorary Membership, 
to wit: 

From among the present membership of this club, 
our former President, Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, our 
Associate Member, the President of the American 
Museum of Natural History, Prof. Henry Fairfield 
Osborn, and from our present list of active members, 
Col. William D. Pickett, one of our Vice-Presidents, 
and Dr. Daniel Giraud Elliot. And that the Execu- 
tive Committee take up the question of increasing the 
Honorary Membership by the selection and electing 
of a certain number of distinguished foreign sports- 

496 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

men not to exceed five in any year, and in that con- 
nection that it consider the names of those who com- 
pose the Shikar Club and any strictly similar sport- 
ing clubs on the continent of Europe. 

In regard to the regular executive officers to be 
elected, the Nominating Committee recommends the 
following names : 

For President : Wm. Austin Wadsworth, of Geneseo, 
N. Y. 

For Vice-Presidents : Messrs. Arnold Hague, of 
Washington, D. C. ; Walter B. Devereux, of Colorado ; 
Archibald Rogers, of New York. And (if the club 
and Executive Committee shall look favorably on the 
recommendations concerning the Honorary Member- 
ship list) to fill the vacancies created by the trans- 
ferring to that list of Messrs. Pickett and Roosevelt, 
the Nominating Committee recommends the names of 
Messrs. George Bird Grinnell and Madison Grant, 
both of New York, as Vice-Presidents. 

For Secretary : The Nominating Committee recom- 
mends Mr. Henry G. Gray, understanding that for a 
year Mr. Grant, who has been our efficient Secretary 
for so long, will act as Honorary Secretary and famil- 
iarize Mr. Gray with the work of his department.. 

For Treasurer: The Nominating Committee, in 
view of the refusal of Mr. C. Grant LaFarge to accept 
a renomination, recommends Mr. William Redmond 
Cross. 

To fill the vacancies on the Executive Committee 
the Nominating Committee recommends Mr. George 
L. Harrison, Jr., and Mr. Winthrop Chanler. 

497 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

For the Editorial Committee, the Nominating Com- 
mittee recommends Mr. George Bird Grinnell and Mr. 
Theodore Roosevelt. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

Charles Stewart Davison, 
Bayard Dominick, Jr., 
William Redmond Cross. 



498 



REPORT OF THE TREASURER 

From February i, 1912, to February i, 1913. 

Balance in bank, February i, 1912 $2,133.97 

1912 Annual Dues $1,000.00 

1912 Initiation Fees 100.00 

Subscriptions to date to Special 
Fund for the Preservation of 
wild life in North America.. 3,760.00 

4,860.00 



Disbursements : — 

Rent to February i, 1913 $507.00 

Printing, etc 418.95 

Storage on B. & C. Club box. . 3.00 
Refreshments, meeting April, 

1911 9-35 

Bookcase 12.74 

Washington dinner in May, 

1912, cost for 12 guests . . . 78.00 

Typewriting, telephone calls, 

clerical work, postage, etc.. . 191.32 

Operator, screen and lantern, 

meeting of December 17.... 10.00 

Bank exchange i .41 



$6,993-97 



1,231.77 



Balance $5,762.20 



REPORT OF AUDITING COMMITTEE 

February 20, 1913. 

This is to certify that we have examined the account of the 
Treasurer of the Boone and Crockett Club attached hereto, 
and find the same correct; that all the expenditures are 
proper, and that the balance is as stated. 



Amo^- PmcHOT, } ^"^^"^^"^ Committee. 
499 



CONSTITUTION 

FOUNDED DECEMBER, 1 887 

Article I. 

This Club shall be known as the Boone and Crockett 
Club. 

Article 11. 

The object of the Club shall be : 

1. To promote manly sport with the rifle. 

2. To promote travel and exploration in the wild 
and unknown, or but partially known, portions of the 
country. 

3. To work for the preservation of the large game 
of this country, and, so far as possible, to further 
legislation for that purpose, and to assist in enforcing 
the existing laws. 

4. To promote inquiry into, and to record observa- 
tions on, the habits and natural history of the various 
wild animals. 

5. To bring about among the members the inter- 
change of opinions and ideas on hunting, travel and 
exploration; on the various kinds of hunting rifles; 
on the haunts of game animals, etc. 

500 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

Article III. 

No one shall be eligible for Regular Membership 
who shall not have killed with the rifle, in fair chase, 
by still-hunting or otherwise, at least one adult male 
individual of each of three of the various species of 
American large game. 

Article IV. 

Under the head of American large game are in- 
cluded the following animals: Black bear, grizzly 
bear, brown bear, polar bear, buffalo (bison), moun- 
tain sheep, woodland caribou, barren ground caribou, 
cougar, musk-ox, white goat, elk (wapiti), pronghorn 
antelope, moose, Virginia deer, mule deer, and Colum- 
bia black-tail deer. 

Article V. 

The term fair chase shall not be held to include kill- 
ing bear or cougar in traps, or crusting moose, elk, or 
deer in deep snow, or calling, jacking, or killing them 
from a boat while swimming, or any method other 
than fair stalking or still-hunting. 

Article VI. 

This Club shall consist of not more than one hun- 
dred regular members, and of such Associate and 
Honorary members as may be elected by the Execu- 
tive Committee. Associate members shall be chosen 

SOI 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

from those who by their furtherance of the objects 
of the Club, or general qualifications, shall recommend 
themselves to the Executive Committee; but except, 
for special reasons satisfactory to the Executive Com- 
mittee, no one eligible to Regular Membership shall 
be elected to Associate Membership. Associate and 
Honorary members shall be exempt from dues and 
initiation fees, and shall not be entitled to vote. 

Article VII. 

The officers of the Club shall be a President, five 
Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, and a Treasurer, all of 
whom shall be elected annually. There shall also be 
an Executive Committee, consisting of six members, 
holding office for three years, the terms of two of 
whom shall expire each year. The President, the Sec- 
retary, and the Treasurer shall be ex-oMcio members 
of the Executive Committee. 

Article VIII. 

The Executive Committee shall constitute the Com- 
mittee on Admissions. The Committee on Admissions 
may recommend for regular membership, by unani- 
mous vote of its members present at any meeting, any 
person who is qualified under the foregoing articles of 
this Constitution. Candidates thus recommended shall 
be voted on by the Club at large. Six blackballs shall 
exclude, and at least one-third of the members must 
vote in the affirmative to elect. 

502 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

Article IX. 

The entrance fee for regular members shall be 
twenty-five dollars. The annual dues of regular mem- 
bers shall be ten dollars, and shall be payable on 
February ist of each year. Any member who shall 
fail to pay his dues on or before August ist follow- 
ing shall thereupon cease to be a member of the Club. 
But the Executive Committee, in its discretion, shall 
have power to reinstate such member. 

Article X. 

The use of steel traps, the making of large bags, 
the killing of game while swimming in water, or 
helpless in deep snow, and the unnecessary killing of 
the females or young of any species of ruminant, shall 
be deemed offenses. Any member who shall commit 
such offenses may be suspended, or expelled from the 
Club by unanimous vote of the Executive Committee. 

Article XI. 

The officers of the Club shall be elected for the en- 
suing year at the annual meeting. 

Article XII. 

This Constitution may be amended by a two-thirds 
vote of the members present at any annual meeting 
of the Club, provided that notice of the proposed 
amendment shall have been mailed, by the Secretary, 
to each member of the Club, at least two weeks before 
said meeting. 

503 



RULES OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

REGARDING PROPOSALS FOR 

MEMBERSHIP 

1. Candidates must be proposed and seconded in 
writing by two members of the Club. 

2. Letters concerning each candidate must be ad- 
dressed to the Executive Committee by at least two 
members, other than the proposer and seconder. 

3. No candidate for regular membership shall be 
proposed, seconded or endorsed by any member of 
the Committee on Admissions. 

Additional information as to the admission of mem- 
bers may be found in Articles III, VI, VIII and IX 
of the Constitution. 



S04 



LIST OF MEMBERS 
OF THE BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB 

REGULAR MEMBERS. 

Copley Amory, 41 Park Row, New York 

James W. Appleton, Knickerbocker Club, New York 

Robert Bacon, 1 Park Ave., New York 

Daniel Moreau Barringer, 370 Bullitt Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Lyman M. Bass, 558 Ellicott Square Bldg., Buffalo, N. Y. 
Franklin S. Billings, Woodstock, Vt. 

George Bird, Union Club, New York 

Robert Parkman Blake, Millis, Mass. 

George Bleistein, 438 Delaware Ave., Buffalo, N. Y. 

William J. Boardman, 1801 P St., N.W., Washington, D. C. 
William B. Bogert, 306 Postal Telegraph Bldg., Chicago, 111. 
Admiral Willard H. Brownson, 175 i N St., N. W., 

Washington, D. C. 
Edward F. Burke, Maryland Club, Baltimore, Md. 

John Lambert Cadwalader, 40 Wall St., New York 

Royal Phelps Carroll, 319 Fifth Ave., New York 

Hon. William Astor Chanler, Knickerbocker Club, 

New York 
WiNTHROP Chanler, 32 Liberty St., New York 

C. Arthur Comstock, 40 Exchange PI., New York 

Frank C. Crocker, Hill City, South Dakota 

William Redmond Cross, 33 Pine St.. New York 

Charles P. Curtis, Ames Building, Boston, Mass. 

Dr. Paul J. Dashiell, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md. 
Morgan Davis, 45 Wall St., New York 

SOS 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

Chas. Stewart Davison, University Club, New York 

Charles Deering, 9 West $26. St., New York 

H. Casimir de Rham, 960 Park Ave., New York 

Walter B. Devereux, 60 Broadway, New York 

Bayard Dominick, Jr., 115 Broadway, New York 

Dr. William K. Draper, 121 East 36th St., New York 

J. Coleman Drayton, 829 Park Ave., New York 

Major Robert Temple Emmet, Ashfield, Mass. 

Maxwell Evarts, 165 Broadway, New York 

Robert H. Munro- Ferguson, Cat Canon, 

Silver City, New Mexico 
John G. Follansbee, Union Club, New York 

Dr. W. H. Furness, 3D, Wallingford, Delaware Co., Pa. 

Deforest Grant, 22 East 49th St., New York 

Madison Grant, 22 East 49th St., New York 

Henry G. Gray, 49 Wall St., New York 

Joseph C. Grew, Department of State, Washington, D. C. 
George Bird Grinnell, 238 East 15th St., New York 

William Milne Grinnell, 21 West 31st St., New York 

Arnold Hague, 1724 I St., N. W., Washington, D. C 

Howard Melville Hanna, 747 Fifth Ave., New York 

George L. Harrison, Jr., 400 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. 
John Howland, 20 East Eager St., Baltimore, Md. 

Dr. Walter B. James, 17 West 54th St., New York 

James Hathaway Kidder, hi Broadway, New York 

C. Grant La Farge, ioi Park Ave., New York 

Dr. Alexander Lambert, 36 East 31st St., New York 

Townsend Lawrence, 319 Fifth Ave., New York 

Edward Hubert Litchfield, 44 Wall St., New York 

Frank Lyman, 82 Wall St., New York 

George H. Lyman, 351 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, Mass. 
Theodore Lyman, Heath St., Brookline, Mass. 

Charles B. Macdonald, 71 Broadway, New York 

Percy C. Madeira, North American Building, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 
Col. Henry May, 1325 K St., Washington, D. C. 

Dr. John K. Mitchell, 1730 Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pa. 

506 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

Dr. Lewis Rutherfurd Morris, 155 W. s8th St., New York 
Dr. Paul Outerbridge, 49 W. 74th St., New York 

Hon. Boies Penrose, U. S. Senate, Washington, D. C. 

R. A. F. Penrose, Jr., 460 Bullitt Bldg, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Robert Forbes Perkins, Framingham, Mass. 

Henry Clay Pierce, 15 East 57th St., New York 

John J. Pierrepont, i Pierrepont PI., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Amos R. E. Pinchot, 60 Broadway, New York 

GiFFORD Pinchot, 1615 Rhode Island Ave., Washington, D. C. 
Wilson Potter, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pa. 

George D. Pratt, Pratt Institute, Ryerson St., Bklyn., N.Y. 
John Hill Prentice, 23 East 69th St., New York 

A. Phimister Proctor, 168 East 51st St., New York 

Percy Rivington Pyne, 680 Park Ave., New York 

Douglas Robinson, 9 East 63d St., New York 

Archibald Rogers, Hyde Park-on-Hudson, N. Y. 

Dr. John Rogers, 102 East 30th St., New York 

Kermit Roosevelt, Brazil Railway Co., Sao Paulo, Brazil 
Hon. Elihu Root, U. S. Senate, Washington, D. C. 

Bronson Rumsey, 676 Ellicott Square, Buffalo, N. Y. 

Laurence D. Rumsey, 330 Delaware Ave., Bufifalo, N. Y. 
Alden Sampson, Century Club, New York 

Dr. Leonard C. Sanford, 347 Temple St., New Haven, Conn. 
Hon. William Cary Sanger, Sangerfield, N. Y. 

Dr. John L. Seward, 416 Main St., Orange, N. J. 

Charles Sheldon, 140 West 57th St., New York 

Dr. a. Donaldson Smith, Kaolin, Chester Co., Pa. 

Dr. Wiixiam Lord Smith, 9 Willow St., Boston, Mass. 

Frederick M. Stephenson, Chicago Club, Chicago, 111. 

E. LeRoy Stewart, Fishkill-on-Hudson, N. Y. 

Henry L. Stimson, 32 Liberty St., New York 

Lewis S. Thompson, Red Bank, N. J. 

Major William Austin Wadsworth, Geneseo, N. Y. 

James Sibley Watson, ii Prince St., Rochester, N. Y. 

Caspar Whitney, Lawrence Park, Bronxville, N. Y. 

William Fitzhugh Whitehouse, 319 Fifth Ave., New York 
E. P. Wilbur, Jr., 515 Delaware Ave., South Bethlehem, Pa. 

507 



The Boone and CrocUett Club 

General Roger D. Williams, Lexington, Ky. 

Owen Wister, 1004 West End Trust Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa. 
J. Walter Wood, 31 Fifth Ave., New York 

HONORARY MEMBERS. 

Dr. Daniel Giraud Elliot, 

American Museum of Natural History, New York 
Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn, 850 Madison Ave., New York 
Col. William D. Pickett, 228 Campsie PL, Lexington, Ky. 
Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, Oyster Bay, N. Y. 

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS. 

Dr. William L. Abbott, Srinagar, Kashmir, India 

Carl E. Akeley, American Museum of Natural History, 

New York 
Lieut.-Col. Henry T. Allen, War Department, 

Washington, D. C. 
Dr. J. A. Allen, American Museum of Natural History, 

New York 
Brig.-Gen. George S. Anderson, University Club, New York 
Lieut.-Gen. John C. Bates, 1313 Massachusetts Ave., N. W., 

Washington, D C. 
Hon. Truxton Beale, 28 Jackson PL, Washington, D. C. 
Hon. D. C. Beaman, 732 Equitable Building, Denver, Colo. 
Major F. A. Boutelle, 335 Pioneer Bldg., Seattle, Wash. 
Col. David L. Brainard, War Department, Washington, D. C. 
William B. Bristow, 2 Rector St., New York 

Edward North Buxton, Knighton, Buckhurst Hill, 

Essex, England 
William B. Cabot, 447 Marlborough St., Boston, Mass. 

Col. Chas. J. Crane, 9th Infantry, Fort Thomas, Ky. 

Brig.-Gen. Wm. E. Dougherty, 2887 East 14th St., 

Fruitvale, Cal. 
Lieut.-Col. Frank A. Edwards, American Legation, 

Berne, Switzerland 
John Sterett Gittings, Ashburton, Baltimore, Md. 

508 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

George H. Gould, P. O. Box 275, Santa Barbara, Gal. 

Henry S. Graves, U. S. Forest Service, Washington, D. C. 
Major-Gen. Adolphus W. Greely, 1914 G St., N. W., 

Washington, D C. 
Dr. Ramon Guiteras, 75 West 55th St., New York 

Major Moses Harris, 346 Broadway, New York 

Henry W. Henshaw, Biological Survey, 

Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
Dr. William T. Hornaday, N. Y. Zoological Park, N. Y. 
Hon. W. E. Humphrey, House of Representatives, 

Washington, D C. 
Hon. John F. Lacey, Oskaloosa, Iowa 

CoL. Osmun Latrobe, Metropolitan Club, New York 

Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, Nahant, Mass. 

A. P. Low, Victoria Memorial Museum, Ottawa, Can. 

Prof. John Bach MacM aster, University of Pennsylvania, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 
Capt. Frank R. McCoy, War Department, Washington, D. C. 
Dr. C. Hart Merriam, 19x9 i6th St., Washington, D. C. 

W. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich. 

J. Cheston Morris, Jr., Spring House P. O., 

Montgomery Co., Pa. 
E. W. Nelson, U. S. Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 
Hon. Francis G, Newlands, Senate Chamber, 

Washington, D. C. 
Hon. Frank Oliver, 191 Somerset St., Ottawa, Canad 

Wilfred H. Osgood, Field Museum of Natural History, 

Chicago, 111. 
Dr. Charles B. Penrose, 1720 Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Hon. George C. Perkins, Vernon Heights, Oakland, Cal. 

Warburton Pike. Union Club, Victoria, B. C. 

Major John Pitcher, Edgewater, Md. 

Hon. W. Woodville Rockhill, Litchfield, Conn. 

John E. Roosevelt, 46 Wall St., New York 

Brig.-Gen. Hugh Lenox Scott, Fort Bliss, Texas 

Frederick Courtney Selous, Heatherside, 

Worplesdon, Surrey, England 
509 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

Hon. George Shiras, 3D, Stoneleigh Court, Washington, D. C 
Dr. Charles H. Townsend, N. Y. Aquarium, New York 
T. S. Van Dyke, Daggett, Cal. 

Hon. Charles D. Walcott, 1743 22d St., N. W., 

Washington, D C 
A. Bryan Williams, 1170 Georgia St., Vancouver, B. C 
Lieut.-Cou William Wood, 59 Grande Allee, Quebec, Can: 
Lieut.-Gen. S. B. M. Young, Soldiers' Home, 

Washington, D. C 



DECEASED MEMBERS. 

REGULAR. 

Gen. Thomas H. Barber. 

Albert Bierstadt. 

Hon. Benjamin H. Bristow. 

Arthur Erwin Brown. 

H. a. Carey. 

E. W. Davis. 

Col. Richard Irving Dodge. 

James T. Gardiner. 

John G. Heckscher. 

Col. H. C. McDowell. 

Major J. C. Merrill. 

Dr. William H. Merrill. 

Henry Norcross Munn. 

Lyman Nichols. 

James S. Norton. 

Thomas Paton. 

William Hallett Phillips. 

Benjamin W. Richards. 

E. P. Rogers. 

Nathaniel Pendleton Rogers. 

Elliott Roosevelt. 

Dr. J. West Roosevelt. 

Dean Sage. 

Sio 



The Boone and Crockett Club 

Philip Schuyler. 

M. G. Seckendorff. 

Hon. Charles F. Sprague. 

RUTHERFURD StUYVESANT. 

Frank Thomson. 
Hon. W. K. Townsend. 
Maj.-Gen. William D. Whipple. 
Charles E. Whitehead. 
Robert Dudley Winthrop. 

associate. 

Hon. Edward F. Beale. 
Major Campbell Brown. 
Col. John Mason Brown. 
William L. Buchanan, 
d. h. burnham. 
Senator Thomas H. Carter. 

A. P. Gordon-Cumming. 
Hon. Wade Hampton. 
Maj.-Gen. W. H. Jackson. 
Captain David H. Jarvis. 
Clarence King. 

Hon. John W. Noble. 
Hon. Redfield Proctor. 
Hon. Thomas B. Reeo. 
Hon. Carl Schurz. 

B. C. TiLGHMAN. 

Hon. G. G. Vest. 
Samuel D. Warren. 

honorary. 

Judge John D. Caton. 

Francis Parkman. 

Gen. Philip Sheridan. 

Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman. 

5" 



OCT 13 IS^S 











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